Eighteen-year-old Totone lives with his dad, a cheesemaker who drinks heavily, and his wise seven-year-old sister in the remote region of Jura, France. Totone gets small-town kicks with his mates, riding around on mopeds and getting drunk, until something awful happens. Left alone to look after his sister, Totone comes up with a daft get-rich-quick scheme to make €30,000 in a comté cheese competition.
Newcomer Clément Faveau, a real-life poultry farmer, plays Totone and gives an amazingly subtle performance. Totone doesn’t say much but his fragility and complexity are all there, humor too in the little shrug of a shoulder. Also terrific is Maïwene Barthelemy, as the teenage dairy farmer Marie-Lise who Totone falls in love with – and steals milk from to make his cheese.
French countryside’s heartfelt tale
In what might be the most tender line of the film, she tells Totone, not unkindly: “Stop snivelling and pull your finger out.”
“Holy Cow” is the feature debut from director Louise Courvoisier, who grew up in the same Jura farming community where the film is set. It shows in every rough-edged, beer-drenched frame – this is earthy, sweaty, unvarnished filmmaking with dirt under its nails.
Courvoisier’s storytelling approach is sensitive but resolutely unsentimental, despite the tragedy that underpins this coming-of-age story. Ultimately, the comté cheese is beside the point: the nourishment in this terrific, big-hearted drama comes from Courvoisier’s satisfyingly full-blooded characters. “Holy Cow” is sentimental in the best of ways, with its warmth and hope in human nature.
After watching the intensive labor of the cheese-making scenes, you may also complain less about handing over a fiver for a little chunk of comté. The film shows at UK and Irish cinemas from 11 April.
