''Red Cow'' (; Pa-''ra'' A-du-''ma'') is a 2018 Israeli independent drama film, directed and written by Tsivia Barkai Yacov. The film premiered at the

2018 Berlin International Film Festival The 68th annual Berlin International Film Festival took place from 15 to 25 February 2018. German filmmaker Tom Tykwer served as Jury President. American film director Wes Anderson's animated film ''Isle of Dogs'' opened the festival, becoming ...

, and won the Best Israeli Film and Best Debut Film awards at the

Jerusalem Film Festival The Jerusalem Film Festival (, ) is an international film festival held annually in Jerusalem, It was established in 1984 by the Director of the Jerusalem Cinematheque and Israeli Film Archive, Lia van Leer, Lia Van Leer, and has since become th ...

Plot synopsis

Benni ( Avigail Kovari) is a 17 year old who lives with her father, Yehoshua (Gal Toren), in

Silwan Silwan or Siloam (; ; ) is a predominantly Palestinian district in East Jerusalem, on the southeastern outskirts of the current Old City of Jerusalem.East Jerusalem East Jerusalem (, ; , ) is the portion of Jerusalem that was Jordanian annexation of the West Bank, held by Jordan after the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, as opposed to West Jerusalem, which was held by Israel. Captured and occupied in 1967, th ...

. When a

red heifer The red heifer () was a reddish brown Cattle, cow sacrificed by Temple priests as a ritual purification, purification ritual in biblical times. Ritual in the Torah The red heifer offering is described in Book of Numbers, Numbers 19. The Tora ...

is born, Yehoshua sees it as a sign of the coming of the

Third Temple The "Third Temple" (, , ) refers to a hypothetical rebuilt Temple in Jerusalem. It would succeed the First Temple and the Second Temple, the former having been destroyed during the Babylonian siege of Jerusalem in and the latter having bee ...

. Benni is charged with caring for the heifer. When she falls in love with Yael (Moran Rosenblatt), a national service teacher, the close relationship between Benni and Yehoshua begins to crack. As tensions rise, Benni is determined to secure a future for Yael and her.

Cast

Production

The film is Barkai Yacov's directorial debut. In an interview, Barkai Yacov said that the movie was highly personal: She grew up religious, in Beit El, one of the first West Bank settlements, and had a relationship with another young woman in her teens. "The film’s geography, plot and the emotions of its characters are all close to me," she said. ''Red Cow'' was produced by Itai Tamir and received funding from the New Fund for Film and Television and the Israel Film Fund.

Reception

; Israel Daily newspaper

ynet Ynet (stylized in all lowercase) is an Israeli news and general-content website, and the online outlet for the '' Yedioth Ahronoth'' newspaper. History Ynet launched on June 6, 2000, in Hebrew, following other Hebrew outlet's website launches ...

critic Shmulik Duvdevani commended the film for providing a glimpse of an area of Israeli life that is seldom seen in the arts – the religious settlements in the West Bank. He opined, however, that the lesbian story line diminished the film and made it somewhat "expected".

Haaretz ''Haaretz'' (; originally ''Ḥadshot Haaretz'' – , , ) is an List of newspapers in Israel, Israeli newspaper. It was founded in 1918, making it the longest running newspaper currently in print in Israel. The paper is published in Hebrew lan ...

critic Nirit Enderman gave the film three out of five stars. She wrote that the film is "refreshing" in that it provides representation to two under-represented groups – lesbians and settlers – but also felt that the youth LGBT romance did not fit in well with the rest of the highly-political film. ; International In

the Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...

, Jordan Mintzer found the political aspects of the film downplayed, and the LGBT storyline integral to the drama: "Procuring fine performances from her three leads, Yacov keeps the drama intimate while hinting at the greater issues raised by men like Yehoshua who believe Israel to be a strictly Jewish state, and who are prepared to live in the heart of Palestinian territory in order to prove their point." Sara Ward, in Screen Daily, praised the actors and the cinematography: "''Red Cow''... moves between the use of walls, fences and shadows to stress the boundaries surrounding its protagonist, and mirroring her restless fervour in its jittery handheld camerawork. Paired with just the right mood — urgent in tone yet measured in pace — the film vibrates with disarming authenticity as a result."

Awards

References

External links

* * {{Films about Orthodox and Hasidic Jews Israeli independent films Israeli LGBTQ-related films 2010s Hebrew-language films Israeli drama films 2018 films Films about Orthodox and Hasidic Jews 2018 LGBTQ-related films Films about LGBTQ and Judaism Films about cattle Films set in Jerusalem 2018 drama films