Amin Jafari
MOVIE REVIEW
Ballad of a White Cow (2021)
“Ballad of a White Cow” is about a woman who, offered the choice of cake or death, rejects the cake every time. It’s a bitter pill to swallow and a bitter film to watch.
Mina’s (Maryam Moghaddam, who not only cowrote the screenplay with Behtash Sanaeeha and Mehrdad Kouroshnia, but codirected with Mr. Sanaeeha) husband Babak was convicted of murder and put to death a year before the main action starts. In all that time, she has been unable to bring herself to file for government assistance, instead living off her measly job in a milk factory. She has further been unable to tell her little daughter Bita (Avin Purraoufi), who is deaf, the truth about Babak’s absence; instead she maintains that he is studying abroad and will return soon. Bita acts out in school, and otherwise spends her time watching old movies, including those of Shirley Temple. Mina herself has neither family nor friends; instead her only contact is with her brother-in-law (Pourya Rahimisam), the messenger of her unpleasant (and unseen) father-in-law, who will not cede Mina control of her own life. His demands that Mina give up her job and allow herself to be protected/controlled by the family are firmly rejected, but they know as well as Mina does that her options are running out.