Cow

Condemned to a life on a prison farm, there's plenty here to raise the alarm, perpetually expecting, poked, prodded and collecting, appreciation paid through point blank firearm.

Greetings again from the darkness. Farming and ranching are about two main things: commerce and sourcing food and other items (wool, leather, cotton, etc). Director Andrea Arnold won an Oscar for her short film WASP (2003), and also directed a couple of narratives that I've seen, WUTHERING HEIGHTS (2011) and AMERICAN HONEY (2016). Her first feature documentary takes us to a dairy farm in rural England, and closely follows the daily life of the cows on the farm.

We open with the birth of a calf and the instant bonding with its mother, Luma. Then, as we've seen in other documentaries, the two are separated and we clearly see the anxiety this creates in the bovines. But this is a working dairy farm and cows exist for two reasons: to produce milk and to have babies. Ms. Arnold wisely keeps the focus on the cows, and the human workers are rarely seen or heard. It's not a pleasant existence for the cows. They spend time being milked by a metallic contraption or being impregnated by a local bull. Denied connection with their offspring, the cows seem to be allowed very little time to frolic or graze in the fields.

Cinematographer Magda Kowalczyk does get some creative shots, but there are a few times the closeness of the camera to the cows gives us a feeling of temporary motion sickness. We are also bounced between mother and calf quite often, and we 'feel' the mother's bellowing as she longs for her baby. The point is made that cows have feelings, especially as related to their offspring, but some of the attempts to drive that home stretch credulity a bit too far. Also responsible for a slight dulling of the film's impact is that it arrives so closely to last year's artistic masterpiece, GUNDA (2021) from Viktor Kosakovskiy, though director Arnold wins for the most abrupt ending (for us and the cow).

In theaters and On Demand beginning April 8, 2022.

The documentary "Cow" of Andrea Arnold shows every day's endeavors of a cow on a dairy farm. It brings us closer to the dark truth behind human exploitation of other species, where our desire of drinking milk makes millions of creatures suffer and live in fear.

This straightforward approach of showing us one specific cow and her way from giving a birth to death, allows us to empathize and understand what is hidden and invisible to a consumer of a milk product. It reminds us that we have no right to use other forms of life just to increase our own comfort. It manages to immerse us into a mind of a cow, living in fear and with no understanding of her own fate.

A method of no narration or dialogue is successful in providing us with tools that help us to distinguish emotions from cold thoughts. The documentary has a simple form, yet still, it manages to be rich in its effectiveness. It succeeds in being immersive, thought-provoking, moving and leaves us with questions that we need to answer ourselves.

I believe that the film's memo and the statement that it makes are on the same pathway of delivering similar messages related to discovering the incomprehensible human sense of superiority over everything else.

While the eponymous cow's way of thinking is less complex and abstract than the potential of the human brain, assuming it is therefore inferior due to that is a result of a rather shallow thinking. The document shows us that cows' greatest dreams and desires are not all that different from human ones. As equal to us, cows just want to be happy. Their way of being happy is to be close to others, surrounded by their family, and by grazing grass in beautiful clearings amidst nature and good weather. What prevents them from being happy in this way is a human system based on taking advantage of others and getting rid of them when they are no longer useful. As long as the destructive and harmful system continues, the suffering of the livestock will continue. However, not only theirs, because the system in which we operate ultimately hurts us, humans, as well.

Because you know how it's gonna end. At least environment is better than U. S. factor farms. But I only go for grass-fed free range milk and meat, if I eat meat at all. I do not care what kind of "mind" a cow has, this is no way to treat these beautiful animals. Here must be a better way. Humans must be kind to all creation.

Do you eat dairy? This film is for you.

I will never be the same after this film. I was already a fan of Arnold, but this film wrecked me. There is no gratuitous violence, just the truth. The empathy you feel for these intelligent beings in inescapable. This is a brave film. Watch it if you're brave.