Skip to main content
Holy Cow film image; two children sit on garbage cans

Holy Cow

Vingt Dieux

Panorama

This event has passed

North American Premiere

Ruddy faced, slender, 18, Totone (Clément Faveau) is a country lad, a tearaway, up for a lark and ready to sow his oats. But an accident means he has to grow up fast, assuming control of his father’s small farm and taking responsibility for the care of his kid sister. He lands a job on a dairy farm, but it’s a steep curve. Mistakes come back to kick his butt. What to do? Living in the Franche-Comté region, he thinks to make his own artisanal cheese and ropes his mates in to help…

Louise Courvoisier’s debut feature earns its exclamatory title for its earthy naturalism, and its candor around sex, booze, and the petty feuds that give the lie to rose-tinted visions of country life. Yet what’s most striking and surprising about the film is its bright-eyed optimism. Totone has a low opinion of himself, but Courvoisier clearly feels differently: he’s resourceful, brave, diligent, and he takes his lessons to heart, whether he’s making love, or making cheese.

 

Youth Award: Un Certain Regard, Cannes 2024

 

Shot through with compassion for its rascally yet vulnerable protagonist…finding emotion in small details rather than big set pieces. It should charm audiences.

Lee Marshall, Screen Daily

 

Supported by

Community Partner

Director
Cast

Clément Faveau, Luna Garret, Mathis Bernard, Dimitry Baudry, Maïwène Barthelemy, Armand Sancey Richard

Credits
Country of Origin

France

Year

2024

Language

In French with English subtitles

Film Contact
Links
18+
90 min
Award Winners Drama Women Directors
Ex Nihilo

Book Tickets

This event has passed.

Credits & Director

Producer

Muriel Meynard

Screenwriter

Louise Courvoisier, Théo Abadie

Cinematography

Elio Balézeaux

Editor

Sarah Grosset

Original Music

Linda Courvoisier, Charlie Courvoisier

Louise Courvoisier headshot; Holy Cow director

Louise Courvoisier

Born in 1994, Louise Courvoisier grew up in the Jura region before studying cinema at the Cinéfabrique in Lyon. Her graduation short, Mano a Mano, won the first prize at the Cinéfondation in Cannes in 2019. Holy Cow is her first feature film, a sentimental cheese epic set in the village of her childhood.

Photo by Laurent LeCrabe

Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre

Misericordia

Dir. Alain Guiraudie
103 min

Edgy, eccentric, and unapologetically queer, this film goes from drama to comedy without putting a foot wrong. Sex and murder are the subjects, and writer-director Alain Guiraudie (Stranger by the Lake) mines them for suspense and outrageous laughs.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

The Stand

Dir. Christopher Auchter
95 min

This rousing doc explores a 1985 dispute over logging in the Haida Gwaii. Taking us from canny retrospective commentary to the thick of the action, director Chris Auchter employs animation and a wealth of archival footage to riveting effect.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Julie Keeps Quiet

Dir. Leonardo van Dijl
97 min

When her coach falls under investigation for inappropriate behaviour, a young tennis ace is thrown into turmoil. Her reluctance to testify about her experience puts her at odds with the club, her parents and her friends.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Resident Orca

Dir. Sarah Sharkey Pearce & Simon Schneider
97 min

Captured in Puget Sound in 1970, killer whale Lolita spent the next half century in a cramped tank in Seaquarium, Miami. The film follows a coalition of Lummi elders, animal lovers and philanthropists on a rescue mission to return her to the ocean.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Grand Tour

Dir. Miguel Gomes
129 min

A prizewinner at Cannes, the latest from the director of Tabu is a playful Asian travelogue, set in 1918 and now, in black and white and colour, a critique of colonialism, and a journey into the history of cinema itself.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

The Way, My Way

Dir. Bill Bennett
93 min

All manner of pilgrims flock to France and Spain to walk the 800 km Camino de Santiago. One such is Bill, a stroppy sexagenarian Australian filmmaker who's determined to do the Camino with minimal prep, a dickey leg, and no firm idea why.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre