Holy Cow

Blessed are the cheesemakers, according to Monty Python. That’s certainly true of Holy Cow – which may end up among the best films at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.

Totone (Clement Faveau) is a regular Jacques the Lad growing up in France’s rural Jura region – famous for its Comté cheese. As the 18-year-old son of a dairy farmer, life is a form of carefree bliss. He helps his dad out a bit but mainly spends his time getting drunk with his mates, trying to pull girls and haring around on his motorbike.

However, racing home from a local dance night at which he’s been spurned by a failed conquest, his life changes forever when he sees his father has died in a car crash.

Left needing to provide for his much younger sister, he has to take work at a farm with a prize-winning Comté cheese. Unfortunately, it is run by the father of those he has had a violent altercation with at said local dance night.

Predictably, he struggles with his new job and responsibilities but hits upon the idea of making his own prize-winning Comté with his pals as a way forward in life. The only problem? He doesn’t have any milk and needs to learn how to make cheese.

This may sound like a strange setup for a touching coming-of-age film but the young cast are truly astonishing in their roles. The unknown Faveau is a revelation as a young man who must face up to new responsibilities he isn’t quite ready for and find a new path in life.

Maïwene Barthelemy is also brilliant as Marie-Lise – the serious farmer’s daughter whose Tontone’s initial plans to steal milk from blossom into a touching relationship between both themselves – and, notably, a birthing cow.

This is also director Louise Courvoisier’s feature debut – and she has frankly put together a rare close-to-perfect first film. We get a sense of both the awkward, doubtful hedonism of being young and how deeper decency can make people mature, like a good cheese, into something more. In addition to stirring immense performances from an unknown cast, the Jura native shoots the backdrop in a way that gives a real sense of place to stage that in.

By the time we reach Holy Cow’s final flourish – and it is literally a flourish – one wants to both cry and cheer, such is the love Courvoisier has built for her characters and their story. Truly Holy Cow is a must-see when it gets a wider release.

Mark Worgan

Holy Cow does not have a UK release date yet.

Read more reviews from our Cannes Film Festival 2024 coverage here.

For further information about the event visit the Cannes Film Festival website here.