Off the Beaten Track

'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.