SummaryA lawyer takes on a case of a prison guard in South Africa who is traumatized by the executions he's witnessed.
Directed By:Oliver Schmitz
Written By:Brian Cox, Chris Marnewick
Shepherds and Butchers
Metascore
Mixed or Average
42
User score
Generally Favorable
6.5
My Score
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Top Cast
Metascore
Mixed or Average
20% Positive
1 Review
1 Review
80% Mixed
4 Reviews
4 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Feb 22, 2021
63
I found the picture moving in spite of its seeming unwillingness to wholly grapple with race and Coogan’s unwillingness to master the Afrikaner accent. He’s a gifted mimic, and Riseborough manages it. What gives? But what it does wrestle with is profound, and profoundly disturbing.
Feb 23, 2021
50
Dowds’ harrowed, haunted performance as a boy overwhelmed not just by the wolves to which he has been thrown, but the ones he claims have unconsciously emerged within him, gives the film its anxious emotional center.
Feb 22, 2021
50
This well-intentioned if somewhat heavy-handed historical affair is anchored by Coogan’s solid lead turn, with support from Andrea Riseborough as a hard-hitting state prosecutor and promising newcomer Garion Dowds as an executioner who could wind up facing the gallows.
Feb 23, 2021
40
What stands out in relief from the film’s flat characters and pedestrian storytelling is its dramatic core: the killing machine that death row had become in South Africa by the end of the 1980s, with 164 executions taking place in Pretoria Central Prison in the year in which Shepherds And Butchers is set, 1987.
Feb 22, 2021
40
Shepherds and Butchers doesn’t know which it is: the twisty legal drama that’s going to herd us through the issue or the ferocious expose, laying out the quotidian grimness of systemic death. It’s better at the latter. Even though much of the action is penned in the courtroom, the horror – and the interest – are played out in the past.
User score
Generally Favorable
75% Positive
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
0% Mixed
0 Ratings
0 Ratings
25% Negative
1 Rating
1 Rating
May 25, 2021
7
wow not sure why this movie got such a beating from the critics???
we really enjoyed the different genre and different storyline from the usual boring drugs, sex and shootings. is it because the critics could not dissociate steve coogan from comedies. he was quite respectable in this serious court outing. his pronounced british diction was credible as a law orator. anyway we found the movie refreshing and thought provoking, especially the disgusting apatheid hanging of the white south africa. true tragic era of colonialism for such a beautiful african country. pls watch it so history don't repeat itself......
Production Company:
- Videovision Entertainment
- Distant Horizon
- Times Media Films
- Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR)
- ARTE
- Department of Trade and Industry of South Africa
Release Date:Jan 31, 2017
Duration:1 h 46 m
Rating:R
Awards
South African Film and Television Awards
• 1 Win & 9 Nominations
Woodstock Film Festival
• 2 Wins & 2 Nominations
Berlin International Film Festival
• 2 Nominations
