The Herd
A peasant family's desperate livestock journey from eastern Turkey to Ankara becomes a devastating passage through poverty, blood-feud politics, and bureaucratic cruelty.
Overview
A poignant journey through hardship and resilience as a family fights to protect their livelihood.
Ember's analysis
- Pacing
- Measured
- Intensity
- Strong
- Complexity
- Layered
- Violence
- Mild
- austere
- claustrophobic
- melancholic
- serious film night
- arthouse cinema viewing
What critics said
Critics broadly regard the film as a powerful, rigorously realistic indictment of social injustice and institutional exploitation.
What sets it apart
May contain story progression spoilers
The family's train trip repeatedly becomes a confrontation with bribes, petty officials, theft, disease, and institutional indifference.
The sheep are the family's crucial commodity, while their attempted sale exposes class inequality and exploitation.
Eastern Turkish peasant life, blood-feud obligations, livestock commerce, and family survival are depicted with stark material specificity.
The packed, airless, contaminated wagons become the film's central environment of suffering and entrapment.
Films like The Herd, and why
The Road
shared rural poverty, institutional oppression, social realism, and emotionally harrowing journey
Yol
shared Turkish social realism, political critique, family conflict, and bleak humanism
Bicycle Thieves
shared migrant journey, economic hardship, class inequality, and compassionate realism
The White Ribbon
shared village community tensions, bureaucratic cruelty, and politically charged realism
Movie Details
- Director
- Zeki Ökten
- Release Date
- 1978-09-27
- Runtime
- 117 min
- Rating
- 7.5 / 10 (44)
Cast
- Tarık Akan
- Melike Demirağ
- Tuncel Kurtiz
- Levent İnanır
- Yaman Okay
- Erol Demiröz
- Şener Kökkaya
- Savaş Yurttaş
- Meral Niron
- Gülten Kaya
Common questions
- What is The Herd about?
- A peasant family's desperate livestock journey from eastern Turkey to Ankara becomes a devastating passage through poverty, blood-feud politics, and bureaucratic cruelty.
- What is The Herd like to watch?
- Ember's analysis rates the pacing of The Herd as measured, its intensity as strong and its storytelling as layered.
- Is The Herd violent?
- Only mildly. Ember rates the violence in The Herd as mild.
- What did critics think of The Herd?
- Critics broadly regard the film as a powerful, rigorously realistic indictment of social injustice and institutional exploitation.
- Which films are like The Herd?
- Films with a similar feel include The Road, Yol, Bicycle Thieves, and The White Ribbon.
- How long is The Herd?
- The Herd runs 117 minutes.
