Allyson Hallman: The Cow

     The aspect of The Cow that intrigued me the most was Hassan’s transformation from himself to the cow. Initially, he is the only man in the village who owns the only cow that provides milk for the villagers. Because of this, he holds a pretty high status within the community and most people want to stay on his good side. When his cow is tormented by some kids near the beginning of the movie, several men are quick to scold the children and show Hassan that they value his contribution to the town. When Hassan’s wife mourns in the center of the village, people come from all over to console her, without even initially knowing why she’s screaming, because she shares Hassan’s high status. They find out that the cow has been killed, so immediately their first matter of business is figuring out a way to protect Hassan. Even though they decide on lying to him, they do so with Hassan’s feelings in mind, which shows their dedication and friendship towards him. However, once Hassan transforms into the cow, that dedication and friendship go out the window, partly out of necessity. They do try repeatedly to console him, but they have to tie him like a calf, whip him, and generally treat him like an animal because he won’t (can’t?) act like a human.

     This transformation is obviously interesting because of how intensely Hassan acts like and becomes an animal, but it also intrigues me because I’ve never really studied metempsychosis. From what I read in Dabashi’s article, it sounds like metempsychosis is the complete transfer of a soul into another body. To me, that sounds like reincarnation, so I was intrigued by how the cow’s soul completely overtook Hassan’s, and wasn’t just a secondary soul living in his body that occasionally surfaced. I was also intrigued by the villagers’ reactions to Hassan’s transformation because I’d like to think that I would act differently and with a bit more compassion, but I doubt I could follow through with that very long. Overall, though, Dabashi's article generally did resonate with my reading of the film.