Artful in its simplicity, with patience that pays off, Viktor Kosakovskiy's quotidian gaze at farm animals, mostly a sow & her brood of 20 or so newborns, with side glances at a careful chicken and a herd of majestic cows, all stunningly wrought in steely digital black & white, is a miracle of empathy that documents without anthropomorphizing. Shot in steady long takes made at ground level, it gives startling intimacy to every small action, leading us along without verbal guideposts or compromise on facts-of-life decisions. Our sow has teats for just so many piglets. Bad news for the runt of the liter. Toward the middle, you might start to feel you’ve gotten what you could from this cast of barnyard characters, and from Kosakovskiy’s technique. Just the place for two brilliant set pieces, one with Mom going on strike against those relentless feeders: No More Free Lunch! (She’ll give in to their squeals soon enough.) And finally, a devastating, magnificent last shot. Ten uninterrupted, unmanipulated minutes, giving witness to what in effect is The 5 Stages of Grief for Mother Pig when her insistent young brood suddenly isn’t around anymore. As subtle & moving a piece of theater as you'll find. A privileged pig moment. Something any actor would kill to play and be wise to study. The film is an astonishment.
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