The new film “Hasta la Montaña” (To the Mountain), directed by Canadian filmmaker Sophie Deraspe, will premiere on February 27th, telling the story of a young Montreal advertising executive who abandons his urban life to pursue a radically different existence as a shepherd in the French Alps. The film, which received the award for Best Canadian Film at the Toronto Film Festival, has already garnered attention following screenings at the Málaga French Film Festival and successful runs in Quebec, France, and Italy.
Deraspe’s film is inspired by “D’où viens-tu, berger?” (Where do you approach from, shepherd?) by Mathyas Lefebure, a non-fiction work detailing Lefebure’s own decision to leave a career in marketing and public relations after an existential crisis, and embrace the life of a shepherd in Provence. The film follows Mathyas as he spends a summer in the mountains with a flock of sheep, joined by Élise, a former civil servant drawn to his pastoral lifestyle.
According to Deraspe, the shift in motivations for choosing a rural life is significant. “Before, you belonged to the rural world because your family had a farm. You came from the land and were going to continue working it,” she stated in an interview with Europa Press. “Today, I think it’s a matter of choice. I can’t speak for Spain, but I’ve seen it a lot in France. Being a shepherd is almost a political choice, an option in favor of a way of life apart from a remarkably materialistic world.”
The film aims to portray both the romanticized and harsh realities of shepherding. Deraspe noted a tendency in cinema to “idealize” rural life, acknowledging that this idealization reflects a genuine quality – the potential for nature to offer a “almost mystical” experience. However, she also emphasized the “rather crude relationship with life and death” inherent in the lifestyle, which she believes may be “shocking or unexpected” for some. “In the film, I’ve tried to show both sides at the same time,” she said.
The production itself experienced an authentic moment of rural life when a lamb was born during filming. Deraspe, who had previously witnessed a calf birth with a shepherdess and described the experience as “very powerful,” had proactively discussed with both the shepherds and actors the possibility of continuing to film should such an event occur. A director’s assistant, disguised as a shepherdess to blend into the background, first noticed the lamb’s arrival. The crew then filmed the birth alongside the actor and sound engineer.
While Lefebure’s book served as a starting point, Deraspe emphasized the significant contributions of the shepherds she worked with, particularly regarding their perspectives on wildlife, such as wolves. “There is a lot of fear, a kind of paranoia that prevents people from living well alongside the wolf,” she explained.
Deraspe observed a common human desire to connect with the natural world, finding it present in both rural and urban populations. “That way of conceiving the world, I identify it in the rural world, I find it in certain people in the urban world, so I don’t end up distinguishing the two things,” she said.
A pre-premiere screening of “Hasta la Montaña” was held on February 16th at the Instituto Francés in Madrid.
