Cow

Andrea Arnold / GB, 2022 / 98 min.

What do we know about the animals we keep for milk, meat and leather? Andrea Arnold (American Honey) and her camera get to know dairy cow Luma, who has just had a calf. Almost without dialogue, Arnold raises questions about intensive livestock farming. Cow is also one of the films of choice of visual artist Janis Rafa, whose work Eye is exhibiting from October 14 to January 7.

For farmers making a living from industrial farming, it’s completely normal. As soon as a cow has given birth to a calf, the calf is taken from its mother, and the mother put on a milking machine almost straight away.

Janis Rafa about Cow:

I feel close to the practice of Arnold: I like the cinematography, the messiness of the worlds she creates: such strong, raw, realistic worlds. Cow is a very special film: it is one of the most successful attempts to perceive the life of an animal. Arnold proposes to step away from the anthropocentric way of telling stories about animals. She really pays attention to the life and perspective of an animal in captivity, and we have to pay attention, too. I see it as neither documentary nor fiction. Cow is not just a documentary about a cow: it is an Andrea Arnold film – which is more exiting.

This is part of

Britain’s Brightest Janis Rafa Month of European Film 2023

Special screenings

Korte films Arnold + Ramsay

Red Road

We Need to Talk About Kevin

Details

Director

Andrea Arnold

Production year

2022

Country

Original title

Cow

Length

98 min.

Language

English

Subtitles

NLD

Format

DCP

Part of

Britain’s Brightest

Idiosyncratic British filmmakers Andrea Arnold (1961) and Lynne Ramsay (1969) make films like their lives depend on it. Perhaps not in terms of quantity, but certainly in terms of urgency.

Learn more