Blackfaced Sheep (1946) | BFI National Archive

This richly detailed instructional film made by the University of Edinburgh offers an unusually intimate and unsentimental account of the life of a shepherd. The sheer physicality of the job and the challenges of the environment come across in this colourful and sometimes graphic documentary. Unless you're unusually strong-stomached, you may prefer to skip the sequence showing male sheep being castrated [between 20:05 and 21:55].

A sheep farmer's work is never done - made plain by the innumerable shots of shepherds wrestling with, herding, shearing, milking and healing their flock throughout the year - as well as a hectic auction at a local market. In the main, the footage has a clinical detachment to it. But during its fleeting images of young lambs scampering around and jumping across streams, a viewer might stop to consider these animals as more than just meat and wool.

This video is part of the Orphan Works collection. When the rights-holder for a film cannot be found, that film is classified as an Orphan Work. Find out more about Orphan Works: http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/c.... This is in line with the EU Orphan Works Directive of 2012. The results of our search for the rights holder of this film can be found in the EU Orphan Works Database: https://euipo.europa.eu/ohimportal/en...

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