Award-winning film shows keepers’ plight

Critically acclaimed documentary The Last Keeper has been selected for next month’s Golden Gate International Film Festival in San Francisco. 

Directed by award-winning filmmaker Tom Opre, The Last Keeper aims to bring into focus the plight of gamekeepers, gillies and stalkers, who see their traditional role as stewards of the land being threatened. The film, which premiered in April, follows their fight to ensure healthy ecosystems while preserving their cultural heritage and right to a livelihood. It delves into the heart of the Highlands, exploring contemporary wildlife management issues and the struggle of rural communities. 

It has been included in 24 film festivals worldwide, winning the best feature documentary award at the Paris World Cinema Festival and the best educational film at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival. 

It is also having an ongoing political impact. In June, Tom Opre joined the Scottish parliament for a preview of the film and to discuss the issues of the rural Scottish communities on which the film focuses. Mr Opre said: “We aim to highlight the rights of these rural communities in connecting with the local natural resources, and to screen the film with this prestigious audience was quite an honour.” 

The GWCT supported the filming of the documentary and a number of its scientists and advisers appear in it. 

The team behind The Last Keeper say they aimed to transcend the traditional sporting estate versus conservationist narrative in order to focus on the conflict itself, and its consequences. 

The film features a broad range of opinions, including those of land reformer Andy Wightman, alongside prominent rewilding figures. It also confronts controversial topics such as the Assynt Crofters’ dispute with the John Muir Trust, as well as local keepers’ backlash over prominent corporate carbon schemes in the Monadhliath Mountains. 

Tom Opre told Shooting Times: “There are parallels with global conservation projects featured in my other films. Change is inevitable but you cannot achieve a just transition without considering the indigenous people who are at the centre of the solution. Wildlife resources, when properly conserved, can help these people realise their most basic human and cultural rights.” 

The documentary courted a vast range of opinion, including the likes of Andy Wightman and prominent rewilding figures from Trees for Life, Scotland the Big Picture and the John Muir Trust. Of the difficulties faced by wildlife managers and rural communities in modern Scotland, Mr Opre said: “It’s a struggle reminiscent of the Highland Clearances, a cultural genocide in slow motion.” 

The Last Keeper is the second film in Mr Opre’s Killing the Shepherd series — visit shepherdsofwildlife.org