MELBOURNE UNIVERSITY FILM INQUIRER

The Cow Who Sang a Song Into the Future is a family drama that is vaguely disquieting and bordering on surreal at times. Unfortunately, for all of its interesting concepts, it’s a film that is a jack of all trades, but a master of none. It tries to tackle factory farming, climate change, family dynamics, grief, and denial of gender identity. However, it succeeds at none of them because it’s too cluttered and never bothers to explore any of these issues with any real depth. It’s a shame, since the pacing is fine, but the film never amounts to anything more than a footnote. It exists, and that’s all it does.

TCWSaSItF tells the story of a family who is affected by the suicide of its matriarch, grandmother Magdalena (Mia Maestro), which happened decades ago. The opening sequence shows her emerging from a lake wherein the fish who reside there have died. Many blame the local pulp factory, but there is an implication that Magdalena may be the personification of Death. Despite this, she only ever kills animals, so it’s very unclear whether this is actually the case.

The inciting incident occurs when Enrique (Alfredo Castro), Magdalena’s widower, has a heart attack at the sight of her. As a result, his daughter Cecilia (Leonor Varela), his son Bernardo (Marcial Tagle) and Cecilia’s children come and stay to take care of him as he recovers. At the same time, Cecilia’s child Tomas (Enzo Ferrada Rosati) identifies as a woman and, in an early scene, tries to make this clear to her mother, who doesn’t listen and insists she’s her “son”. This conflict is never brought up again. There are many subplots that do this, unfortunately, and it is one of the film’s downfalls. Similarly, the film is not totally abstract or surreal in its execution, but is also not entirely realistic. It indulges in magical realism, but never commits to it. Director and co-writer Francisca Alegría is very ambitious, but gives the impression that she is confused about what she is trying to say, if she’s trying to say anything at all.

Another problem with this film is the one dimensional characters. Tomas is vaguely interesting, the rest of the family less so. Cecilia is upset at her mother for committing suicide, but isn’t given any characterisation beyond that. Enrique has regrets, but we’re not entirely sure what those regrets are. Magdalena doesn’t even utter a word of dialogue throughout the film, rendering a character who could have been quite interesting, having died and been resurrected, literally mute. It’s frustrating when this film has such potential in ideas and characters, but is unwilling to engage with either of those in a meaningful way.

Ultimately, The Cow Who Sang a Song Into the Future is a frustrating, pointless film which, although not terrible, isn’t great either. How can an audience meaningfully engage with a film so full of clichés that is unwilling to do so with what it presents before us? Answer me that and I will sing a song into the future.

The Cow Who Sang a Song Into the Future can currently be found at the Melbourne International Film Festival (running online through MIFF Play until August 28th). Interested in writing a review of anything? Just send us an email.