The Cow
1968
Directed by Dariush Mehrjui
This is a love story between a man and his cow. That's right. Does the very idea of that exhaust you? I guess it is worth it because this film inspired more cinema from the Middle East. So let's take a trip to Pretentiousland for the sake of the future.
Hassan loves his cow. He leaves his village for a short time and unfortunately, the cow dies while he is gone. The villagers tell Hassan that the cow ran away because they knew things would get weird if he knew the truth. Things get weird anyway and Hassan starts pretending to be a cow. All right then.
I don't have much to say about this film, so I will keep it short. It was clearly trying to make me feel something that I just wasn't feeling. Don't get me wrong, I understand the importance of the cow: it was his companion, the only one in the village, his pride and joy, etc. But there are so many movies about the loss of someone really special in your life (whether it is a child or a sibling) that this film just felt like an emotional step down. I might be the only one that felt that way, so you may want to give this film a shot.
That is my scattered review on The Cow. I was never into pet films, so I advise skipping this one.
RATING: **---
Interesting Facts:
A disclaimer was tacked on by the film's financial backers saying that the story took place long before the current regime in Iran.
Yeah, they would not want people to think that Iran was a backward farming country that loves cows. Yet the regime that took over loved the film. Wonder what that says about them?
ReplyDeleteStar character killed off at the end of the first reel? It's just like Psycho or LA Confidential!
ReplyDeleteI thought this was surprisingly excellent, including working as a comedy. So many great characters that would have been good to get to know better if only we had the time. What a shame it didn't develop into a TV series.