The Cow Who Sang a Song into the Future review – gripping tale sprinkled with animal magic

Chilean director Francisca Alegría weaves together singing cows and family trauma in this thoughtful magical realist fable with an environmental message

First-time Chilean director Francisca Alegría turns up the arthouse dial past eleven right from the name of her debut feature. The Cow Who Sang a Song into the Future is a conspicuously poetic title that gives every impression that we’re in for a hardcore cine-patience tester. I have to admit that it made my heart sink. But while, yes, TCWSSF is a dreamy magical realist fable with an environmental message, Alegría weaves into her tale an emotionally satisfying, gripping family drama, with singing cows – and fish too.

It begins with the fish, dying by the shoal-load on the banks of a river, poisoned by pollution from a nearby factory. As the fish die, a woman gasps to the surface of the water. This is Magdalena (Mía Maestro), who drowned herself decades ago. Now she is back from the dead as if time stopped – still gorgeous, still dressed in the boilersuit she wore when she drove her motorbike deliberately into the river. Magdalena’s husband collapses when he spots her outside a mobile phone shop. Their adult daughter Cecilia (Leonor Varela) – just a girl when her mum died – drives from the city with her two kids to look after him at the family’s dairy farm.

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