Between personal longing and collective consciousness
Director Imam Hasanov’s film Holy Cow offers a documentary perspective at a village environment where an individual desire clashes with collective consciousness. Rather than shaping the events into a storyline, Hasanov chooses to quietly observe them through the lens of his camera.
At the center of the film is a village resident whose name is not mentioned. He lives with a single desire — to purchase a “foreign breed cow.” Though his desire may appear modest, it conceals a deeper yearning for transformation. He explains why he wants to buy this cow: since it is bigger and produces more milk than the local ones. The protagonist’s house is located in the lower part of the village.
He climbs up the hill to make a phone call. his upward movement can be seen as the first step in his journey toward fulfilling his desire. The director does not symbolize this desire; instead, he presents it as a natural situation. The camera remains an observer, detached from the events themselves, allowing them to progress organically. Once the man voices his wish, he obtains a photograph of the cow and hangs it on the wall of his old house. He already feels as if he owns the cow. The protagonist shares his joy with his children and his wife.
In the film, the tension between personal aspiration and collective thinking is revealed through the village elders. They stand against change, representing the group that seeks to preserve tradition. From the very first scene, the audience witnesses their harsh resistance to the protagonist. They urge him not to bring the foreign cow into the village, warning that it will bring disease along with it. Gradually, their attitude softens, turning into irony and sarcasm. In the end, they become completely calm. Although these moments are presented with the natural rhythm of reality, a subtle detail does not escape our attention.
At first sight, the director’s presence in the protagonist’s actions seems imperceptible; yet, in the scenes of dialogue with the village elders, subtle guiding touches can be discerned. This minimal intervention does not overstep the boundaries of documentary film — it merely approaches them. Consequently, the elders’ objections give the impression of a mildly directed social dialogue shaped, to some extent, by the author himself.
In Holy Cow, the character’s inner development is not conveyed through various events but through the passage of time and the change of seasons. Snow falls, holidays come and go. Unlike in fiction, the documentary form allows the audience to perceive the character’s internal transformation through these subtle rhythms. The man retreats into silence. The camera constantly shows him alone. Just as his house is located below and apart from the others, he too keeps his distance from people and the community. He confides his wishes only to his children. He also begins to build a new house for his family – a gesture through which the audience senses his effort to emerge from the old, both in spirit and in body.
The protagonist’s wish comes true — he purchases the cow. We witness the depth of his attachment to the cow which is revealed in the way he prepares for the trip to buy it. He shaves, combs his hair, puts on new clothes, and even applies perfume before stepping out. It almost seems as though he is not setting out to buy a cow, but to attend an important meeting or a serious matter. Through this, the viewer perceives the sincerity and reverence with which he regards his dream.
The cow becomes the very center of the man’s world. He gives it special care, never letting it lack water, grass, or feed. He pampers as well as strokes it, and tries to keep the cow satisfied. At times, he doesn’t even step outside the barn from morning till night. He even names the cow “Madonna.” His devotion to fulfilling the animal’s every need gradually distances him from family members. This, in turn, stirs jealousy in his wife. She begins secretly watching her husband through the barn window. This part doesn’t come across as entirely natural. One senses that the director is trying to direct the woman’s behavior.
Imam Hasanov’s camera remains a passive observer throughout the film. However, in the jealousy scene, it seems as if it appears to actively orchestrate the events. Here, we are no longer confronting reality itself, but the director’s interpretation of it. Moreover, the scene fails to generate a strong emotional impact because the emotion does not arise from a natural situation. The composition of the shot disrupts spontaneity and diminishes the sense of documentary realism. This raises a question: “In depicting reality, is the director simultaneously creating it?”
At this point, Imam Hasanov’s observer role begins to deviate somewhat from its usual stance. The perspective of watching events from the outside is no longer maintained. The camera’s position shifts. It feels as if the audience is being prompted to ask, “Look, how does this woman feel?” In this moment, the director momentarily adopts the role of an orchestrator of events. Overall, we sense that the man feels free and uninhibited in front of the camera, whereas his wife appears constantly uneasy and constrained by the situation. She is aware that the camera is recording her and is uncomfortable.
The man acquiring the cow conveys to the audience not a sense of “sacredness,” but the feeling of life going on. The cow in the film does not appear as a symbol, but as an ordinary detail of everyday life. The camera does not mystify it; instead, it presents the cow as something that naturally belongs in the life of a villager or farmer.
The film has no dramatic climax because, in reality, climaxes do not occur along a neat, linear path. The title “Sacred Cow” sounds ironic. The sense of sacredness lies in the simplicity of events and in the rural milieuitself. By the film’s end, the individual’s desire merges with the life of the village as a whole. The camera observes this transformation slowly, quietly, and naturally.
Nadjaf Asgarzadeh