The Shepherd and the Bear

Directed by Max Keegan
United Kingdom
2024
100 mins

Synopsis

Yves, a retiring shepherd in the exquisite French Pyrenees, is seeking a successor – a task made difficult by the recently rewilded bears attacking his flock. IDFA 2024.

By the 1990s, brown bears in the French Pyrenees were on the verge of extinction. Efforts to reintroduce them to the area have seen some success – but when Yves is nearly killed by a bear, the government, media, and the locals must reckon with a moral dilemma: should these apex predators be encouraged to roam in a traditional farming region whose human inhabitants struggle to survive, and whose sheep have long roamed free? Director Max Keegan spent two years living in the Pyrenees, building trust and understanding. In the spirit of Honeyland (SFF 2019) and The Truffle Hunters, the resultant film transports us fully to these majestic mountain ranges, aided by Amine Bouhafa’s (Four Daughters, SFF 2023) superb score.

Limited seats are available for patrons requiring access for wheelchairs, low vision and hearing loop. Please contact our ticketing team directly on 1300 733 733 or tickets@sff.org.au to complete your booking.

Max Keegan’s lyrical, visually and aurally ravishing documentary ... balances its sympathy for mountain folk with an ecological vision that is wordlessly embedded in every shot.
Lee Marshall, Screen International

Tickets

Sat 7 June 2025, 1:30pm
Event Cinemas George Street - Cinema 3
WheelchairSubtitledAssisted Listening
Sat 14 June 2025, 2:15pm
Palace Norton Street - Cinema 3
WheelchairSubtitledAssisted Listening
  • Program Strand
  • Year
    2024
  • Classification
    Unclassified 15+
  • Country
    UK, USA, France
  • Language
    In French with English subtitles
  • Director
    Max Keegan
  • Producer
    Elizabeth Woodward, Amanda McBaine, Jesse Moss, Max Keegan
  • Screenwriter
    Sabine Emiliani, Max Keegan
  • Cinematographer
    Clement Beauvoi, Max Keegan
  • Editor
    Sabine Emiliani
  • Genre
  • Premiere
    Australian Premiere
  • Company Credits
    World Sales: INDOX
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Sydney Film Festival acknowledges Australia’s First Nations People as the Traditional Owners and Custodians of the land, and pay respect to the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, upon whose Country SFF is based.

We honour the storytelling and culture of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities across Australia.

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