Direction: Francisca Alegria
Country: Chile
Employing magic realism, The Cow Who Sang a Song Into the Future, can be haunting at times as it languishes in an oppressive atmosphere that goes beyond superstition. Symbolism and dreamy sequences help to extract depth and meaning from a story that fuses past, present and future, while touching on topics such as family, death, forgiveness, generational damage and trauma, and environmental concern.
Intriguingly, a woman called Magdalena (Mia Maestro) emerges from the polluted river where fish are dying. Arriving barefoot and with a helmet on, she seems to know exactly where to head. Her daughter, Cecilia (Leonor Varela), a respected surgeon in Santiago, returns to her childhood home to visit her father, Ernesto (Alfredo Castro, who worked with Pablo Larraín in some of his best films). He had a cardiac episode after seeing his dead wife. Burdened by the past, Cecilia brings her two children with her, including her trans son Tomas (Enzo Ferrada), who doesn’t hide a special kinship with his long-lost grandmother.
The beauty of the story lies precisely in how to overcome fragility, doing it with both realistic and supernatural quests that will take you out of your comfort zone. Debutant director Francisca Alegria co-wrote with two others, maintaining the lyricism intense in a non-linear film that will divide audiences. Yet, one can't help wonder if that's not exactly what the director was looking for. What is unquestionable here is that: understanding in order to repair and heal applies both to family and our mother Earth.
