Shepherds and Butchers, Cineworld, Edinburgh Film Festival

Set in the dying days of apartheid South Africa, this underplayed courtroom drama follows the murder trial of Leon Labuschagne (Garion Dowds).  He has shot and killed seven young man black men in a fit of blind rage, but claims to be unable to remember the event itself or what led up to it.  An English lawyer, Johan Webber (Steve Coogan) is appointed to defend him, in a case that appears to be indefensible, with all the evidence indicated that the defendant had carried out the murders.

This is the background story for an exploration of  South Africa's then heavy use of the death penalty, and the brutalising influence it has on those who have to take part in it.  To avoid military service the seventeen year old Labuschagne had opted to work in a maximum security prison where, on only his second day in the post, he had to escort a prisoner to the gallows and hold him in place before the trapdoor opens.  Month after month of this work affected his mental state, and this is the defence Webber uses.

Flashbacks are liberally employed to illustrate the nature of the work the accused took part in, with graphic illustration of the most unpleasant aspects - there is no shying away from the piss, shit and blood that comes with hanging people.  And of just how dehumanising the atmosphere is for the warders who take part in these scenes day after day.  Which is the basis for the defence Webber develops, and the structure on which the film hangs.

Coogan makes for a persistent advocate, trying to develop something from nothing, and Dowds is truly excellent as the young man suffering internal conflicts.  But the courtroom scenes, in trying for realism, have ended up feeling very flat at times, lacking the edge of confrontation that would provide a spark of life.  Fortunately the flashbacks, with their unflinching portrayal of brutality and violence, counterbalance this, and jolt the viewer into an emotional reaction.

It's a worthy subject and has much to commend it, but it's a film lacking the spark needed to mark it out of the ordinary.