Film review: Notes from Sheepland offers a fascinating glimpse into how the demands of late-capitalism impact on the creatives and farmers

Orla Barry explores how her twin obsessions inform one another, and whether the increasingly difficult business of farming is allowing her to fulfil her artistic vocation.

Notes from Sheepland is a documentary that follows Irish artist Orla Barry

• Notes from Sheepland
• ★★★☆☆
• Cinematic release

Notes from Sheepland (12A) is a documentary that follows Irish artist Orla Barry as she explores how her twin obsessions – she’s also an award-winning sheep farmer – inform one another, and whether the increasingly difficult business of farming is allowing her to fulfil her artistic vocation.

Adapted from Barry’s collection Shaved Rapunzel, Scheherazade & the Shearing Ram from Arcady, Cara Holmes’ film isn’t afraid to get its wellies dirty: much of the documentary is spent in the fields and yards of Barry’s farm as she provides, via voiceover, ‘notes from the more primal aspects of life.’

Those observations can sound a touch contrived and even pretentious at times, and especially when they’re contrasted with Barry’s chthonic connection to the land and the flock she so lovingly rears against the odds.

Indeed, the film, and Barry’s work, is at its best when she investigates the impossible dilemma of ‘creating creatures to fit packaging’, which offers a fascinating glimpse into how the demands of late-capitalism impact on the creatives and farmers who are working at the coal-face for ever-dwindling returns. (theatrical release)