HOLY COW

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Storyline (warning: spoilers)

In Louise Courvoisier's debut feature film, Holy Cow is used both as an expletive and as an acknowledgement of the life source that sustains the characters who reside in the film's rural town. The story centres on Totone, an 18-year-old boy who lives on a farm in the remote French Alps region of Jura with his alcoholic cheesemaker father and seven-year-old sister Claire. After Claire is left in Totone's care following their father's untimely death, the teen hatches an aspirational plan to win 30,000 euro ($53,500) of prize money in a cheesemaking competition.
Many of the actions of Holy Cow's rapscallion protagonist stem from deep feelings of inadequacy in a world that does not allow the space for men to be emotional. Beyond the economic precarity of his life, he labours beneath unspoken rules that govern relations between men and women and lofty gendered expectations that he cannot always meet.
An antidote to the undercurrent of toxic masculinity is Totone's tight-knit friendships with schoolmates Jean-Yves and Francis. The way they care for each other is imperfect yet enviable in its ability to counter the grief and trauma that Totone, in particular, is undergoing. Another respite is Totone's guardianship of Claire, who he lovingly and unstintingly cares for to the best of his abilities. Faveau's understated performance as Totone expertly balances trepidation with the increasing realisation that he can break out of the confines of gender and class in his life. Yet, as the film adeptly shows, transcending one's station in life is not as easy as a cheesemaking competition may lead you to believe.
Holy Cow could have materialised into a bleak study of poverty and misfortune, but it remains intentionally warm and hopeful— while not varnishing the challenges of growing up without emotional and material anchors. Instead, it morphs into an optimistic portrait of chosen family and accelerated adulthood, with the cheese a not-so-subtle metaphor for Totone's growing maturity and eventual entry into a world he had no choice but to join.