When their wives go to work in Germany, the men in a rural Romanian village suddenly don’t have any spare time any more. Beautifully observed, powerful but gentle documentary about the changing world of shepherds in Transylvania. With great empathy and original ‘sheet music’.
'Why do we still keep sheep?' The shepherds in the meticulous, loving documentary Off the Beaten Track repeatedly ask themselves this. They are continuously involved with the animals, but the work no longer brings up as much as it used to: the price for lamb, wool and sheep’s cheese has dropped dramatically in recent years.
The Romanian filmmaker Dieter Auner spent more than a year in a small village in Transylvania, in the northwest of Romania. The whole community still lives from sheep farming, but that won’t last very long. Since Romania joined the European Union, another opportunity has opened up for the shepherds. There’s a lot more to be earned in Germany.
Apparently without difficulty, Auner manages to penetrate deeply into the everyday life of the shepherds. Without a voice-over or any other intervention, he has made a melancholy and sober portrait of a lifestyle that is about to disappear.
Programmer Note by Ludmila Cvikova:
If you think you have already seen a film with a similar subject: shepherds and their sheep and their life, then you are wrong and you definitely should not miss Off the Beaten Track. This wonderful, warm, human gem just opens up all your senses and gets you thinking about the changes that are part of our modern world and globalisation.
I don’t exactly know where the magic of this film is rooted but one thing is certain: it moves, it touches, it makes you empathise with its characters. The strength of the shepherds’ society and their families is something that has become rare in our urban world: their love and respect for one another, their strong reverence for their work and tradition, even for their animals.
But life is not easy in rural society these days, and it does not produce enough income. The shepherds’ wives need to go and earn money in Germany. The closing scenes with the young shepherd discovering the taste of the West by eating 'Pringles' is again a very moving image. Globalisation cannot be stopped. Will there be any shepherds left in 50 year's time, do you think?