Direction: Andreas Arnold
Country: UK
In her first documentary, Andrea Arnold (Fish Tank, 2009; American Honey, 2016) turns the camera lens to a milking cow, Luma, and its calves, showing their daily routines over several years with an experimental approach that, besides purely visual, is non-judgmental. The idea came up seven years ago, and the outcome is raw and sufficiently explanatory with no need for voice-over or musical score.
Shot with harmless gravitas, Cow projects a strange mix of roughness and awareness through carefully composed frames that show a predilection for extreme close-ups. Ruminative, unhurried and intimate, the doc is a fascinating insight into the life cycle of dairy cattle from a modern farm located in Kent, England. There are moments where Luma seems annoyed by the camera, staring inquisitively and beseechingly while calling a newborn calf taken away too early.
We are witnesses of some uncomfortable procedures inflicted on these animals, which are not exactly free despite enjoying real moments of freedom. Informative, quite involving, yet inevitably repetitive, Cow could not have brought more into the fold. No one has heretofore captured cow life as Arnold did, but as a film experience, it should leave many unsettled.
