Cow - Expat Cinema

A calf is born. For dairy cow Luma, an experienced mother, this is routine. She licks her newborn calf clean before it is taken away from her. Luma's life is a sequence of insemination, giving birth and being milked.

In Cow, director Andrea Arnold, who previously made Fish Tank and American Honey, among others, follows the daily life of a dairy cow. The camera is so close to Luma's skin that she regularly knocks the filmmaker over. The result is an intimate and purely cinematic portrait of an individual trapped in a cold system.

Andrea Arnold: "The film is an attempt to dwell on cows. To see both the beauty and the misery of their lives. Not in a romantic way, but in a real-life way. It's a film about the daily reality of a dairy cow and the recognition of the amazing service she provides us.''