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The movie follows a lawyer (Steve Coogan) as he sets out to prove a prison guard's murderings were a direct result of psychological trauma from the volatile work environment he took part in.
2 January 1988, Germiston, South Africa
February 14, 2016
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.
February 14, 2016
Oliver Schmitz, one of South Africa's essential directors, delivers a mix of emotional acuity and overkill with this death penalty drama.
February 01, 2017
There's a powerful movie to be made about the range of lives destroyed by the apartheid system -- both Black and white -- but Shepherds And Butchers isn't it.
February 02, 2017
The performances are solid, including Coogan and especially Garion Dowds as the laconic and mournful defendant. Director Oliver Schmitz gives the film a measured pace, stoking tension as the courtroom drama unfolds.
October 28, 2016
Watching Shepherds and Butchers is a harrowing experience that would sway you if you don't already have any firm opinion about capital punishment.
February 14, 2016
The film mostly preaches to the converted, even if it reveals with historical gravity how capital punishment was another way that apartheid severely discriminated against South Africa's black population.
February 17, 2016
Missed the potential to be more of an emotionally rich experience.
