
The intersection of magical realism with environmentalism is explored to varying degrees in “The Cow Who Sang a Song into the Future.”
Alegria’s film is poignant, commencing with imagery of sick fish gasping their final breaths by the riverbank. Later, we see a cow illuminating the forest around her while being bathed in strands of moonlight, which seems to connote the beginning of a new day. The cow appears to stare directly into the depths of our souls. The title ‘The Cow Who Sang A Song Into The Future’ makes more sense once we realize that a sorrowful song keeps playing during most of the film. It is eerie, yet captivating. Swarms of bees emerge from the dim skies and seem to form in order, as if delivering a message.
It could be argued that The Cow Who Sang a Song in the Future requires a fair amount of patience and could be too much of a slow burn for people and there’s hardly any depth to her characters, aside from a few superficial details.
With the jarring notes of a horror film in the backdrop, Magdalena materializes, fully clothed and helmeted, from the Cruces River and strolls around aimlessly. We discover that she is a victim of a bike accident, although there is an argument that this was an accident in and of itself. It is difficult to piece together the mechanisms that allow her to interact with the living world, the rules are ever so changing. While she cannot speak, she can, however, affect electronic devices. In this state, people can view her which allows for rather unusual interactions. Her presence correlates to how her widowed spouse, Pablo (been Soto) reacts. It is essential to understand that he is so astonished by meeting his wife after death that her beauty seems frozen in time. This leaves him in such a shocked state that he eventually checks into the hospital.
This has led to Cecilia (Leonor Varela), his daughter, having to attend to him there. She is a surgeon, so naturally the rest of the family has called her to help take care of the family’s dairy farm along with her children. One can say that Cecilia suffers greatly when it comes to emotionally interacting with her mother, which ends up trickling down to how she raises her children. To begin with, she does not want to acknowledge that her daughter is trans and continues to call her teenage Toma, Enzo Ferrada Rosati. While we see her wishing to wear dresses, put on makeup, and even wear earrings, we will never truly understand what name she wished to be called. It is fair to say that her younger sister is not given an ounce of development.
According to television reports, the family of a child suffering from illness as well as having peculiar traits attributes the sickness and odd behavior to a nearby pulp factory. They have branded it as an ecological disaster, which certainly encourages her and her family to engage in protests in every city they travel to. This environmental damage is one of the core reasons in the screenplay from Alegria, Fernanda Urrejola, and Manuela Infante, but it seems out of place. The same can be said for Magdalena’s reconnection with her family, where she chaotically attempts to seek the catharsis she aims for. Smudging the edges of these two stories in such a dreamy fashion leads to an incomplete whole.
Even so, some brilliant scenes remain in the memory. One of the more positive images is the quiet moment of communion and understanding facing teenagers sitting in an empty boat. The two are outcasts of this closed society, and are no less than heroes. This once again allowed Magdalena to relish herself within the visceral and thrilling power of human touch. Still, Maestro’s Wonder in the masterful performance of is more than impressive. Her eyes, frowns, smiles, tears, and gestures all speak of so much–emotion, grief, happiness, and love–it is hard to comprehend. After all the pain depicted throughout the movie, it’s quite astonishing that Alegria’s film ends on such a hopeful note.
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