The Cow - Hina Anwar

The film The Cow was a peculiar story. It tells the tale of a man, Hassan. and his cow. The two share a strange relationship other than master and livestock.  Hassan seems to have a great love for the animal as if it was his own child. He even plays with it and eats its food as if the cow would enjoy the attention. The cow showed little to any reaction, or emotion. Once the cow passes away, the entire village in which Hassan resides try their best to prevent him from discovering it. Inevitably he realizes what has happened and that's where the film gets really weird. Hassan essentially becomes his cow.  He loved his cow so much that the loss was too devastating, he no longer knew how to function. This was so odd.  I understand how easy it is to get attached to something, but to completely lose it when the object of obsession is gone makes no sense. Nothing in this world is forever after all. His attachment was too deep-seated. It also seemed like the cow was the only thing in his life that gave him meaning. His wife and everything else were unimportant. He didn't even seem to hold any affection for his wife, which made me think that their marriage was probably arranged and was just an obligation he could not refuse.

The death of the cow was beneficial in other terms. It brought the village together with a common goal: to get rid of the body and prevent Hassan from finding out. The village is all together on the decisions of what to do. Hassan's journey into insanity was beneficial as well. It helped them get rid of a group of thieves. So although Hassan's world came crashing down, the village seemed to better with the exception of an insane resident and no cow to provide milk. It was odd how they tried to help Hassan for what seemed like a few days, or at least a week and then suddenly they couldn't deal with him anymore. The way in which they got rid of him reminded me of how they got rid of the cow. Tied up and dragged away, Hassan and the cow both became obsolete tools. Can a person even be  considered obsolete? Hassan would have died eventually if he continued his journey, so why get rid of him? It's not like they had to take care of him, he wasn't their responsibility.

The article provides greater insight on The Cow. The creator, Gholam-Hossein Saedi, provided a realism to the film. It made me notice other parts of the film, such as how the narrator had no real emotion towards what was going on. Also the villagers reactions to the film were very realistic, they didn't freak out when Hassan turned into a "cow" and they acted rationally with how to deal with him. I didn't know that the creators were also trying to play at the transfer of a soul into another body, or metempsychosis. I personally don't believe in such a thing, but it is an interesting concept. And it makes sense how the cow's soul was transferred to Hassan which would explain his sudden change. However, wouldn't that mean that he would have two souls and why would the cow's soul be the dominant one? It doesn't really make much sense how his attachment to his cow, his strange affectionate relationship was powerful enough to change his entire life. I don't even know if you could call it love because the cow provided him with milk and he might have felt special having the only cow in the village. The film didn't do much in that aspect to show how strong the relationship of the two was. It felt like more like he had an obsession with an object, that he wanted to maintain.