The Cow Who Sang a Song Into the Future

Directed by Francisca Alegria

Release Year: 2022
Running time: 98
Country: Chile
Language: Spanish w/English subtitles
$15.96 - Classroom Rights
MSRP: $19.95
$349.00 - With PPR
$499.00 - With DSL
$499.00 - With DSL and PPR
MSRP: $599.00
Screening Request
Directed by: Francisca Alegria

A choir of creatures introduces a world delicately constructed by fantasy, mystery, and magical realism in Francisca Alegría’s poignant and stunning debut feature. It begins in a river in the south of Chile where fish are dying due to pollution from a nearby factory. Amid their floating bodies, long-deceased Magdalena (Mia Maestro) bubbles up to the surface gasping for air, bringing with her old wounds and a wave of family secrets. This shocking return sends her widowed husband into turmoil and prompts their daughter Cecilia (Leonor Varela) to return home to the family’s dairy farm with her own children. Magdalena’s presence reverberates among her family, instigating fits of laughter and despair in equal measure with all but Cecilia’s eldest child, who finds much-needed comfort in their grandmother’s love and unconditional understanding during a time of transition. A lyrical rumination on family, nature, renewal, and resurrection, The Cow Who Sang A Song Into The Future is an ambitious proposal for acceptance and healing, suggesting that the dead return when they are most needed.

Reviews

"Critic's Pick! The power of Alegría’s feature debut is found... in the lyrical, magical realist qualities of folklore."

- Brandon Yu, The New York Times
 

“Hauntingly moving and hopeful… a folkloric tale that uses magical realism as a way to connect the intimate story of a family suffering from generational trauma with a timely environmentalist fable.”

- Rafael Motamayor, Indiewire
 

“A wonder! Firmly cements its director as a distinctive voice in Chilean cinema”

- Manuel Betancourt, Variety
 

“A magical realist eco-fable... teeming with thought-provoking ideas.”

- Jonathan Holland, Screen Daily 
 

"Mysterious and elegiac, a tale of warning about a collapsing ecosystem and about deep family wounds."

- Alissa Wilkinson, Vox
 

"Offers a hopeful vision for collective healing.”

- Caitlin Quinlan, Little White Lies
 

"Feels like the arrival of a totally new voice."

- Drew Gregory, Autostraddle
 

“Reminiscent of Apichatpong Weerasethakul's Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives.”

- Pat Mullen, That Shelf
 

Awards

Official Selection – Sundance Film Festival

 

Official Selection – Fantasia Film Festival

 

Official Selection – San Francisco Film Festival

 

Official Selection – Miami Film Festival

 

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