Dariush Mehrjui's THE COW is credited as making modern Iranian cinema possible. As the story goes, Ayatollah Khomeini liked the film, allowing it to play in theaters across Iran, despite being approved and partially funded by the Shah's government. In 1971, the film was smuggled out of Iran and played at the Venice Film Festival, where is won awards and became the first Iranian film to get a wide reception outside Iran. Taking a page from the French New Wave, this neo-realistic drama is like THE BICYCLE THIEF combined with UMBERTO D.
Based on Gholan-Hossein Saedi's play, the story follows Masht Hassan (Ezzatolah Entezami), a man who holds a high status in his village because he owns the only cow in miles. His relationship with his animal is move loving than his relationship with his wife. A great deal of his personality is wrapped up in owning the cow. One day while he is away on business, the cow mysteriously dies. The town's smartest man Eslam (Ali Nassirian) believes that Hassan won't be able to handle the news and convinces the town to cover it up, telling Hassan that the cow ran away and that the local thug Esmayil went to find the beast. When Hassan does return, no version of the story is comforting. Slowly, Hassan slips into insanity, eventually taking on the role as his cow.
Mehrjui begins with an ominous tone with its blurry imagery and evocative music. The happy scenes with his cow come off strange and unsettling. We sense right from the start that this man is unusually close to his cow. The stark buildings of the village and cruelty of Esmayil to the mentally handicapped man builds on the foreboding. When bandits raid at night, the shadowy black & white cinematography creates real dread. Entezami's powerful and haunting performance, aided by the harsh strings on the soundtrack, make Hassan's sink into insanity quite disturbing.
On the simplest level, the film is about what it is about. A proud man who loses everything in one day, which mentally breaks him. But underneath, it's about the backwards nature of rural life, filled with cruelty and superstition. Though the Ayatollah liked the film, the censors still made Mehrjui tack on a disclaimer to the film stating that the events in the story took place 50 years prior to the current government. But in a universal way, the film is also about the cycle of life and accepting it. Hassan changes dramatically over the course of the story, but so does the bully Esmayil. From death comes new beginnings. But will Hassan be able to learn this lesson?
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
