Shepherds by Sophie Deraspe: what happens when you place yourself on the margins of the world

Filmmaker Sophie Deraspe appropriates the true story of Matyhas Lefebure, recounted in her novel Where are you from, shepherd? (Leméac, 2006), to make a cinematographic fresco entitled Shepherds and presented at the opening of the Cinemania Festival this Wednesday.

In her sixth feature film, the director tells the story of a young Montreal advertising executive who decides to leave everything to become a shepherd in Provence.

The genesis of the story for me was in 2015. I didn’t expect an adventure that requires so many years, so much preparation.admitted Sophie Deraspe at the microphone of the show Penelope on HERE FIRST.

In the movie ShepherdsMathyas meets a civil servant who has also left her job and together they begin a transhumance with a flock of sheep. The film highlights the tradition from the south of France of transporting flocks of sheep from sheepfolds to the Alps in spring.

Matyhas Lefebure gave carte blanche to Sophie Deraspe who held in her hands the novel based on her own life.

He knew that I was going to adapt respectfully. I had my own experience there with him and I went back. I experienced the impacts of this relationship with the living, this relationship with raw nature, the relationship with animals, with people, their way of speaking, of moving, of interacting with each other. It influenced my writing and it was essential.

The filmmaker’s writing process is tinged with simplicity. I wanted to leave the words behind and focus on what cinema can convey in a masterful way through the grandeur of the images, she explains. I know that this film has a magic that we experienced and which is transmitted to the screen when we take possession of the world again.

A human film

The film crew was surrounded and accompanied by real shepherds who are part of the final result. We would never have been entrusted with a herdsays Sophie Deraspe.

A desire to collaborate with the people of the placethroughout the production of the film, was necessary. I made this film with partners who were sincerely curious. We could never have made the film without the shepherdsshe said.

To play Mathyas, the only Quebec role in the film, Sophie Deraspe met several actors. It was Félix-Antoine Duval who had all the assets to become the apprentice shepherd at the center of the story.

In reality as in the film, a shepherd leaves Provence and walks with his flock for 17 days. He’s a nomad, specifies the director. He will sleep outside with the herd or in the van that follows him, but not always.

In the film, there is no need for a big intellectual or political discourse. Just putting yourself on the margins of the world like that is a punk choice in itself.

The story of Shepherds allows, according to her, to change our relationship to work and the speed of life. The message is anchored in a proposal for detachment from materiality, a journey outside of capitalism.

Work with your heart

Shepherds won the award for best Canadian film at the 49^e Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) last September. Sophie Deraspe won the same award in 2019 for her previous film, Antigone.

The secret of these successes? Work with your heart. Despite all our preparation for ShepherdsI told myself that we also had to let reality grip us, she explains. Making a film like this is a lot about opening your heart and mind and letting whatever happens happen.

Shepherds will be presented at the opening of the Cinemania Festival (New window) this Wednesday, November 6. The feature film will be released in Quebec on November 15.

With information from Penelope.