SHEPHERDS AND BUTCHERS
synopsis
South Africa, 1987. When Leon, a white 19-year-old prison guard commits an inexplicable act of violence, killing seven black men in a hail of bullets, the outcome of the trial - and the court’s sentence - seems a foregone conclusion. Hotshot lawyer John Weber reluctantly takes on the seemingly unwinnable case. A passionate opponent of the death penalty, John discovers that young Leon worked on death row in the nation’s most notorious prison, under traumatic conditions: befriending the inmates over the years while having to assist their eventual execution. As the court hearings progress, the case offers John the opportunity to put the entire system of legally sanctioned murder on trial. How can one man take such a dual role of friend and executioner, becoming both shepherd and butcher? Inspired by true events, this is the story that puts death penalty on trial and changes history.
international title: | Shepherds and Butchers |
original title: | Shepherds and Butchers |
country: | South Africa, United States, Germany |
sales agent: | WestEnd Films |
year: | 2016 |
genre: | fiction |
directed by: | Oliver Schmitz |
film run: | 80' |
screenplay: | Brian Cox |
cast: | Andrea Riseborough, Steve Coogan, Deon Lotz, Robert Hobbs, Brett Williams |
cinematography by: | Leah Striker |
film editing: | Megan Gill, Isabel Meier |
art director: | Michael Berg |
costumes designer: | Diana Cilliers |
music: | Paul Hepker |
producer: | Anant Singh, Brian Cox |
production: | WDR Westdeutscher Rundfunk, ARTE GEIE, Port-Au-Prince Pictures GmbH, Distant Horizon [US], Videovision Entertainment [ZA] |