WINTER NOMADS
Directed by Manuel von Stürler
Documentary feature film| 2012 | 90 min
Producers : Elisa Garbar, Heinz Dill
Produced by Louise Productions
Pascal, 53, and Carole, 28, are shepherds. In the month of November 2010, they embark on their long winter transhumance: four months during which they will have to cover 600 km in the Swiss-French region, accompanied by three donkeys, four dogs and eight hundred sheep.
An exceptional adventure begins: braving the cold and the bad weather day in day out, with a canvas cover and animal skins as their only shelter at night. This daily saga reveals a tough and demanding profession requiring constant improvisation and unflinching attention to nature, the animals and the cosmos.
An odyssey through a landscape undergoing profound changes that render this kind of expedition more difficult every year, especially when having to find grass for the sheep between villas, railroad tracks and industrial areas, making it day after day more and more difficult.
An eventful journey full of surprise encounters, moving reunions with farmer friends, nostalgic figures of country life that is shrinking away fast..
A film dominated by the strong personalities of Pascal and Carole, whose relationship and joie de vivre transform this transhumance into a magnificent hymn to freedom, at opposite extremes of our comfortable realities.
Winter Nomads is an adventure film, a contemporary road movie, a reflection of our current world that takes us back to our roots and our inner questions.
The shepherds : Pascal Eguisier and Carole Noblanc
The sheep farmer : Jean-Paul Peguiron
Screenplay : Claude Muret and Manuel von Stürler
Director : Manuel Von Stürler
DOP : Camille Cottagnoud
Sound recordist : Marc von Stürler
Editing : Karine Sudan
Editing assistant : Prune Jaillet and Jessica Dayan
Sound editing and mix : Etienne Curchod
Colorgrading : Patrick Lindenmaier
Location manager : Raymond Vonnez
Music by : Olivia Pedroli
Violin : Annick Rody
Alto : Laurence Crevoisier
Bass : Gerald Perera
Recording by : Bernard Amaudruz and Olivia Pedroli
Music consultant : Stéphane Blok
Music mix : Bernard Amaudruz
Production : LOUISE PRODUCTIONS
Executive producers : Elisa Garbar and Heinz Dill
Production assistant : Vanda Rodrigues
In coproduction with :
Radio Télévision Suisse
Unité documentaire, Irène Challand and Gaspard Lamunière
SSR-SRG idée suisse
Patrizia Pesko
Arte G.E.I.E.
Unité documentaires, Annie Bataillard and Anett Sager
With the support of :
Office Fédéral de la Culture
Fonds REGIO Films
with la Loterie Romande and la Fondation vaudoise pour le cinéma
Fonds culturel Suissimage
UBS Kulturstiftung
Gesellschaft zu ober Gerwern Bern
Bürgergemeinde Bern
Fondation SUISA
Pour-cent-culturel Migros
2014 Cebu International Documentary Film Festival CIDFF
MABUHI CIDFF BEST of THE FEST Award
2012 EUROPEAN FILM ACADEMY, DOCUMENTARY FILM AWARD
Best documentary 2012
Quartz Best Camera
Quartz Best Editing
DOC FEST Thessalonique 15-24.03.2013
ET3 AWARD
BELGRADE Magnificent7 03.02.2013
48ème Journées de Soleure 24-31.01.2013
AUTRANS FILM FESTIVAL 5-9.12.2012
Special mention
EXGROUND FILM FEST 16-25.11.2012
Best of festival
FESTIVAL DU CINÉMA EUROPÉEN EN ESSONNE
Special Jury Price
Special Student's Jury Price
FESTIVAL DEI POPOLI (ITALY) 10-17.11.2012
ARRAS IFF (FRANCE) 9-18.11.2012
FILMTAGE-TUEBINGEN 31.10-07.11.2012
MOSTRA DE SAO-PAULO 19.10-01.11.2012
MUESTRA DE BUENOS-AIRES 10-28.10.2012
FLAHERTIANA IFF (RUSSIA) 10-15.10.2012
REYKJAVIK IFF (ISLAND) 27.09-07.10.2012
NAMUR FIFF (BELGIUM) 28.09-05.10.2012
Golden Bayard of the Best Photography
Public Prize Documentary
NARA IFF (JAPAN) 14-17.09.2012
FFFh BIENNE (SWISS) 12-16.09.2012
MONTREAL FFM 23.08 - 03.09.2012
DER NEUE HEIMATFILM FILM (AUSTRIA) 22-26.08.2012
Jury's special mention
NEW ZEALAND IFF 19.07-05.08 2012
SYDNEY FILM FESTIVAL 6-17.06.2012
Best screenplay (Fool Serious Awards)
27ème DOK.FEST MÜNCHEN 02-09.05.2012
55ème SAN FRANCISCO IFF 19.04-03.05.2012
Golden Gate Awards Documentary Feature Official Selection
VISIONS DU RÉEL, NYON 20-27.04.2012
Grand prix for the best Swiss feature film 2012 (in all sections)
World premiere
