The Cow--Melissa Hurley

What attracted me most about this film was its simplicity. There were not multitudes of characters to keep track of, the film moved slowly, examining each detail fully, and the main problem was simple, yet very difficult to solve. I will explain what I mean for each of these. 

Hassan was obviously the main character. He seems to be a very simple man, with a very deep love and affection for his cow. Rightfully so, considering this is the only cow that lives in his village. The way he cares for this cow is almost like it is his lover or his child; very endearing and focused on the one-on-one relationship. The beginning of the film shows an example of “a day in the life” of Hassan and his cow. They are not doing anything extraordinary, but you can really see the bond that the two of them share. The other people in the film don’t serve as big of a purpose except for maybe his wife who becomes extremely emotional once the cow dies. I feel like the film really spent a lot of time on simple details. The scene with Hassan bathing his cow was very long, as was when he was with the cow in the stable feeding it. These long scenes give a feeling of a slow, uncomplicated life. This is drastically juxtaposed however when all hell breaks loose when the cow dies. This is the main problem of the film and the whole town comes together to try and solve it. The plan to tell Hassan that the cow ran away was not a likely story, but it was really the only choice they felt they had. The simple problem of relaying that the cow has died becomes much more difficult when the bond between the cow and the owner is as strong as this relationship was. Even though due to limited time we were not able to watch the film in its entirety, I could still totally see how deranged and crazy Hassan must have become after his beloved animal died. He connected so well with that cow that maybe he thought that the only way to hold on to the love that they shared was to act how she had acted, leading him into a very animalistic lifestyle.

Is this film realistic? I would say to an extent. I am an animal lover myself but I don’t think I could ever see myself having the same fate as Hassan. It definitely does open your eyes to how blind you can become when something you love is taken away from you.