Cow © Madman Entertainment (2021)
Cow (2021) © BBC Film

ACMI presents

Cow

Andrea Arnold | UK | 2019 | PG
Film

Tickets

Full

$20

ACMI Member

$16

Concession

$14

When

Sat 8 Mar - Mon 17 Mar 2025

See below for additional related events

Andrea Arnold presents one of the most emotionally engaging films of recent times – about the daily life of a dairy cow.

Andrea Arnold’s debut as a documentarian offers an immersive look at the life of an English dairy cow named Luma, or 1129 if you go by her branding.

Without explanation or narration, we’re guided on this cinematic journey by a cow whose every moo carries weight and whose long-lashed eyes convey an incredible depth of emotion. Despite relegating the only humans on the screen to the film’s periphery, Andrea Arnold’s Cow is ironically one of the most humanistic films of recent years.

Curator's Note

Filmed over four years, and almost always at head height of the animals it observes, Andrea Arnold’s documentary invites us into the world of the dairy cow by effectively offering a cow’s-eye view and refusing to let you look away.

So compassionate is Cow that it’s unclear whether Luma becomes more human during the film, or we become more bovine. In fact, Luma’s regular trips to a carnivalesque milking station pumping out hits by Billie Eilish and Kali Uchis could double as your local suburban hangout.

Oscillating between the harrowing and the banal, the film masterfully interrogates the slavery of animals in a way that’s eye-opening and unforgettable.

– Reece Goodwin, Curator (Film & TV)

Format: DCP
Language: English
Source: Madman Entertainment
Courtesy: Madman Entertainment
Runtime: 94 mins

Event duration

94 mins

Rating

PG

Mild themes and a scene of animal slaughter

Where

ACMI Cinemas, Level 2
ACMI, Fed Square

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Focus on Andrea Arnold (Fri 14 Feb – Sun 23 Mar 2025)

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