Nabbing a third place Panorama Audience Award prize at the Berlin Film Festival earlier this year, it might not have been enough to put Oliver Schmitz‘s “Shepherds and Butchers” on the lips of cinephiles, but it’s definitely enough to warrant some attention. And while the movie is still making its way through the festival circuit, a new trailer has landed for the drama that’s based on true events.
Starring Steve Coogan, Andrea Riseborough, and Gavin Bowds, the story is set in South Africa, where a teenage prison guard is put on trial for the brutal slaying of seven black men. However, in his corner will be a talented lawyer, albeit one who is more than reluctant to take the case. Here’s the official 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.
There’s no word yet on release dates for the movie, and there’s no U.S. distribution, but we’ll keep an eye out. [Cine Maldito]
