Screen/Society--"Holy Cow" (Louise Courvoisier, 2024) | 2026 French Film Festival

Screening as part of the 2026 French Film Festival
(Jan 29 - Feb 13, 2025)

HOLY COW [Vingt Dieux]
(Louise Courvoisier, 2024, 90 min, France, French with English subtitles, DCP)

-- Winner of two César Awards including Best First Film and Best Female Revelation (Maïwene Barthelemy)

Following the sudden death of his farmer father, hard-partying 18-year-old Totone (Clément Faveau) is abruptly obliged to step into the role of man of the house in Louise Courvoisier's directorial debut, which premiered in the Un Certain Regard section at last year's Cannes Film Festival. Taking a job at a nearby dairy farm, where he quickly falls for the farmer's daughter, Totone makes up his mind to jump-start his family's future via an unorthodox shortcut: winning a 30,000 Euro prize for producing the best Comté in the region. In this warm, lived-in coming-of-age fable-a treat for cheese-loving cinephiles in particular-Courvoisier brings together a cast of non-professional actors from the Jura region where she herself grew up, creating a rich depiction of rural agricultural life that's also a crowd-pleasing story about the unlikely detours that shape the utterly unpredictable process of growing up.

"Immersed in rural, working-class culture, the action is vérité and honest without being bleak. Courvoisier shoots in a way that's unfiltered-literally, given her use of natural light. You can practically feel that cool misty air, that hot sun on your skin." - The Times (UK)

"[A] testament to resilience in the face of hardship, and a hymn to the Jura region where Courvoisier herself grew up. Her images of the countryside ooze brightness and warmth, and the film takes care to authentically depict the community." - Little White Lies

Sponsored by Albertine Cinemathèque, a program of FACE Foundation and Villa Albertine.

French Film Festival website: https://francophone.duke.edu/news/2026-french-film-festival-jan-29-feb-13