Trading a Montreal office for the mountains of southern France sounds like a fresh start. For the young man at the centre of Shepherds, it becomes a demanding lesson in the distance between imagining a simpler life and living one.
Chinook Film Group will present the award-winning French-Canadien drama for one night only on Wednesday, Oct. 21, at 7 p.m. at the Cochrane Movie House, 218 5th Ave.
Advance tickets are now available at the theatre’s box office or online.
A fresh start meets harsh realities
Canadian actor Félix-Antoine Duval plays Mathyas, a burned-out advertising executive who leaves his career behind to become a shepherd in Provence. Hoping to find purpose away from corporate pressures, he discovers a profession that demands far more than enthusiasm for the countryside.
Gruelling work and the challenge of finding acceptance force him to reconsider his romantic expectations of rural life.
His encounter with Élise, played by Solène Rigot, offers a new direction. A civil servant who has also walked away from her job, she joins him on a journey through the mountains with a flock of sheep in their care.
Together, they undertake a transhumance — the seasonal movement of livestock between grazing grounds — facing the demands of the terrain and responsibility for the animals as they work toward a different future.
Chinook Film Group says the film also explores tensions surrounding the practice, including objections from naturalists.
Festival honours and a familiar director
Directed by Sophie Deraspe and adapted from Mathyas Lefebure’s semi-autobiographical novel D’où viens-tu, berger?, Shepherds won best Canadian feature film at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival and earned a place on TIFF’s annual Canada’s Top Ten list for 2024.
The film went on to win four Iris awards at the 2025 Quebec Cinema Awards, recognizing its cinematography, sound, editing and original music.
Deraspe’s work will be familiar to longtime Chinook Film Group audiences. Her film Antigone was the group’s final selection before the 2020 shutdown.
Chinook has been bringing alternative and independent film to Cochrane since 2004.
The trailer can be viewed here.
