KILLER OF SHEEP (1977)

Cast

Plot

Through the eyes of Stan, a sensitive dreamer who is growing detached and numb from the psychic toll of working at a slaughterhouse, we observe the black Los Angeles ghetto of Watts in the mid-1970s. Frustrated by money problems, Stan finds respite in moments of simple beauty: the warmth of a coffee cup against his cheek, slow dancing with his wife in the living room, holding his daughter. Killer of Sheep offers no solution to Stan's world, merely a presentation of his life and those around him; sometimes hauntingly bleak, sometimes filled with transcendent joy and gentle humour. Shot on location in Watts over a series of weekends, on a budget of less than $10,000, the film was shown only sporadically, but as its reputation grew this remarkably touching piece of work finally, deservedly, won a prize at the 1981 Berlin International Film Festival. "Following the main character through a series of scenes, in none of which is he understood and in few of which does he understand others, is a painful experience. He is a gentle man in an often brutal, accusing or banal world but this has led him to close off from his partner. The scenes in which that is played out are almost unwatchable in their desperation and authenticity. This is a slow film, the action is subtle, but it is one of the great accounts of masculinity, and of the Black American experience" - Neil Jacobs