Saturday, November 2, 2013, 6:00 pm
Asia Society Museum

Screening Program 1: The Cow
As part of Iranian New Wave 1960s-1970s (Film Series)

100 min. B/W.
Mash Hasan (Ezzatolah Entezami) is the owner of the only and much treasured cow in his impoverished village. One day while he is away, his beloved cow is mysteriously killed. Afraid to hurt Mash Hasan’s feelings, fellow villagers tell him the cow has run away. Distraught, Mash Hasan descends into madness and assumes the identity of the cow, as the village deals with a collective psychological breakdown. Although funded by the state, the film was banned for a year due to the unabashed depiction of poverty in the countryside — a stark contrast to the image of modernization promoted during the Shah’s reign. The film was smuggled to the 1971 Venice Film Festival where it received the Critics’ Award.

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Above: Dariush Mehrjui, “The Cow” (1969). 100 min. B/W. Courtesy of the artist and Asia Society Museum.