‘Ballad of a White Cow’: Film Review | Berlin 2021

The widow of a man wrongfully executed for murder seeks justice in all the wrong places in Behtash Sanaeeha and Maryam Moghaddam's Iranian drama. Adding another strong voice to the chorus of anti-capital-punishment films coming out of Iran is Ballad of a White Cow ( Ghasideyeh gave sefid ), a drama almost entirely centered on the wife of a condemned man who is wrongfully executed for murder in the opening scene. Played with huge amounts of feminine dignity by Maryam Moghaddam, who co-directed with Behtash Sanaeeha, the widow Mina is shown to be refreshingly capable of raising her deaf daughter on her own and navigating the minefield of a highly misogynistic society — and even (gasp) of finding love. But as hostility against Mina builds from her family, neighbors and the authorities, disaster looms and the story grows more suspenseful, teetering on the edge of melodrama. Fortunately, the realism of the acting and the classic, restrained camerawork keep things on a believable path. Its bow in Berlin competition should open a few doors for this white cow. The first shots of a huge, modern prison encircled by walls and surrounded by Tehran's towering mountains speak symbolically of a whole society… Read full this story

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