Notes from Sheepland

Ireland2023documentary71'Focus on Ireland

Orla Barry, the film’s protagonist, has inherited the family farm in Wexford and her day-to-day activities include sheep farming. The woman resolutely eludes the gender stereotypes that the Church and the conservative government have attributed to Irish women over the years. She lives in a non-heteronormative relationship and keeps her feet firmly on the ground. She is a committed breeder, although in her professional life she chose something as elitist as the visual arts. The director skilfully blends the two worlds of the protagonist by enriching the documentary with numerous recordings and archival footage of her artistic activities and showing the everyday life of the farmer fighting against industrial breeding in favour of sustainable and organic practices.