52 Films by Women Vol 6. 25. COW (Director: Andrea Arnold)
When I was growing up, ‘creature features’ were films about human-animal hybrids that, after awkward introductions, terrorised communities and were generally misunderstood. The Wolf Man , The Fly and, of course, Creature from the Black Lagoon are three such examples. In the documentary form, the term means something different. Viktor Kossakovsky’s ground-breaking film, Gunda , focussed on a mother pig that had just given birth; the supporting cast included a one-legged chicken. In British director Andrea Arnold’s documentary, Cow , the spotlight is on a Kent dairy cow branded with the number 1129, whom we later hear is called Luma. Arnold, who has an impressive track record in British dramas – Red Road , Fish Tank , Wuthering Heights – had a mixed experience in the United States in the 2010s. On the plus side, she wrote and directed American Honey , about a girl, Star (Sasha Lane) who runs away from her negligent mom and joins a group of travelling magazine subscription sell...