Director: Amer Shomali & Paul Cowan, Writer: Paul Cowan, 2014, 75min. Palestine, Canada, France. Featuring Alison Darcy, Rosann Nerenberg, Holly O’Brien, Heidi Foss. In English and Arabic with English subtitles and Japanese SDH subtitles. Streaming is limited to the viewers in Japan.
This feature film incorporates live action footage with animation to tell the curious story of 18 cows. Acquired by a Palestinian community in the late 1980s, the cows were a symbol of freedom and resistance, providing milk for the Palestinian residents of Beit Sahour so that they would not rely on Israeli producers. Soon the illegal cows, cherished by the Palestinians, were being sought by the Israeli army as a threat to security. With humor and passion, this film captures the spirit of the 1987 uprising through the personal experiences of those who lived it.
Official Selection at the Toronto Int’l Film Festival; Abu Dhabi Film Festival Best Documentary Award; Al Jazeera Int’l Documentary Film Festival Al Jazeera Documentary Channel Award for Long Film; Palestinian entry to the Academy Award
Amer Shomali is a Palestinian artist and worked as multimedia designer at Birzeit University and ZAN Studio in Ramallah, Palestine. He uses art and technology to design posters, political cartoons and short animation to support local and international political campaigns and open local social debates.
Paul Cowan is an established Jewish Canadian filmmaker who spent the bulk of his career with the National Film Board of Canada. He has produced a number of controversial films since the 1970s and won a Genie Award and was nominated for an Academy Award. He has also won an Academy award as a cinematographer.