Andrea Arnold made her name with outstanding dramas such as Wasp, which won the Academy Award for Best Short Film, and the Cannes Jury Prize-winning American Honey. And now, for Cow, Arnold turns documentarian as she immerses in the all-too-brief life of Luma, a heifer on an unremarkable dairy farm in Kent.

 

Cow tells the full story: from calving to animal-rearing, milking to grazing, life to death. There’s no voiceover, narration or talking-head interviews to provide context – it’s just us, Luma and her cohort of companions down on the farm. In this unexpectedly involving film, Arnold simply invites us to see the world as Luma sees it – and to consider both our place in and our relationship with the natural world.

Cow screens at the ICA from Friday 14 January.