2. Dariush Mehrjui's Gaav (Cow): Portrait of a village

Dariush Mehrujui’s second film Gaav (Cow) is masterly crafted to show a portrait of a remote village, in Iran. His raw depiction of life there becomes the very reason that  leads officials in Iran to censor the film in 1969, under the rule of Shah.

Nothing happens in this village. Men drink tea, others spend their hours idle, women cook, villagers are obsessed by the bandits stealing their sheep. Children chase a dumb young villager foretelling their future. Superstitious villagers are concerned with the evil eye and performing religious rites. Even too concerned with the matters of others. And so Masht Hassan (Ezzatolah Entezami) cow becomes the centre of attention being the only one who owns a cow. He holds a lot of pride and affection. But, this one and only possession will turn to be a curse that will lead him astray. What is one to do when you’re surrounded by people of a village that you can’t belong to yet can’t escape from? His adoration, love and kindness is depicted through the tenderness he displays to his pregnant cow. Hassan derives his joy and purpose of life from this love. But not for long. He goes away for a day and when he comes back, he finds it missing. But the whole village anticipates his arrival and conceals the truth. Not even his wife can confront him, revealing the nature of their relationship. The false collective power that leads to destruction as when the whole village reaches a consensus to lie to Hassan. A delirious Hassan surfaces. His grief propels him into becoming delusional, believing that he is the cow. The villager’s attempts to save him. In fact, throughout this process, we discover their cruelty. And, it is the ways in which they choose to react and talk to him that puts us into a position of understanding Hassan’s relationship with his cow and now his sorrow after it’s absence from his life.

Mehrujui’s precise staging of the villagers as they get to gather, disperse, wait for Hassan gives these scenes a theatrical perspective. Elderly men holding the black flags with the panja on top of it disappearing on the hilltop lends a haunting feeling to the film. Shadows  trudge across scenes. Eyes are solemnly  lit to bring us closer to the souls of these people. 

Mehrjui studied Philosophy at the University of California, in Los Angeles. He has won a number of accolades for his work including the Venice film festival critic’s award in 1971. He continued to collaborate with actor Entezami on The Postman, The Cycle,  The School and other titles. After the revolution, he traveled abroad. His post revolution films include Leila starring Leila Hatami and The Pear Tree starring Golshifteh Farahani. As Mehrjui stated in an interview "I was very much influenced by the Neorealism in Italy and also the classical films of Eisenstein or even Griffith and some of these films which they categorise as art films...the first thing that I learned from Neorealism was to just look for the reality of your own...not the others. Try to be just yourself and try to seek out the reality inherent in your culture, in your society, and the closer you go, the deeper you go into that, the more universal it will be.”

Ignorance will overshadow a village and religious rites cannot pull a village out of darkness. If people don’t take action in making change than the next generations will follow in their footsteps. The cow is symbolic to many things; nationalism, political ideology, money. We become deluded as individuals when we become slaves to our possessions. And our only salvation is to work and enlighten each other. Nikolai Gogols’ short story The overcoat comes to mind. A story of a government clerk who saves money to buy a new overcoat that gets stolen. Unable to find those who stole it, this event leads to his illness and finally, to his death. The idea of one refusing to be human reminds me of acclaimed Japanese director Shohei Imamura's short film  from the 9/11 segment. It tells the story of a prisoner, who after returning home from war metamorphoses into a snake startling his family members. He's popular for portraying vignettes of nature and animals in his films. Gaav illustrates how a feeble mind encloses an individual. Surrounded by ignorance, one becomes mad.

Fereydon Ghovanlou, the director of photography of this brilliant work brings out the nuances in the faces of the village, yet all of them  are doomed with the same fate. This is true in the emotions revealed on the  grim faces of the villagers as they perform religious rites. His sensibility of light design makes this an unforgettable black and white art film.

Mehrujui’s film’s simply story has touched hearts both in Iran and on the international circuit. A beautiful black and white art project with a grim subject matter. This  film is a joy to watch. It proves that it's possible to make an art film that wins the hearts of many.