As part of the Dok-Termin series organised by fsk-Kino, we will be showing Andrea Arnold's documentary COW on Monday, 25 July accompanied by a recorded conversation that film curator and critic Sebastian Markt had with the film's cinematographer Magdalena Kowalczyk.

Andrea Arnold, celebrated for her feature films such as FISH TANK, WUTHERING HEIGHTS and AMERICAN HONEY, made her first documentary film with COW and presented it at the Cannes Film Festival 2021. In it, she shows the everyday life of a dairy cow from the perspective of Luma the cow, the camera accompanying her at eye level, in the barn of the family farm and in the meadow, during milking and the birth of her calf. At once sober and empathetic, the British filmmaker does without commentary in her portrait of the hard life of farm animals and raises questions about animal consciousness.

"Dairy cows work hard. They spend their lives giving birth and giving milk. A lifetime of maternal existence. They give birth to maybe ten to twenty calves, but each time the calf is taken shortly after birth so that the milk can be used for us. ... This film is an attempt to think about cows. It is meant to bring us closer to them. To see both their beauty and the challenge of their lives. Not in a romantic way, but in a real way. It is a film about the reality of a dairy cow and the recognition of her great service to us. When I look at Luma, our cow, I see the whole world in her." - Andrea Arnold