It wasn't the wolf

“Mr. Seguin’s Goat” has remained, for many, a terrifying image tucked away in childhood — the familiar and cruel story of a little goat who breaks free from her master and pays dearly for her freedom.

A documentary-style reimagining of this famous 19th-century French tale, the film transposes the goat’s tragic adventure — through the story of a young shepherdess — into the contemporary pastoral world.

Zoé has not followed the advice often given to young women: not to venture alone into the forest or the mountains. She heads to the high pastures, alone with a flock of a thousand sheep. The young shepherdess longs for wide-open spaces, for freedom from the male gaze, for emancipation. But on the high plateaus, she discovers a harsh world still largely dominated by men. Through her experience emerges the portrait of a milieu where bodies — of women and animals alike — collide with predation, the hardship of labor, and violence. It wasn’t the wolf questions the place of women in the livestock world and reminds us that, in this world, the main danger is not always the wolf.