Red Cow

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A Jerusalem Metaphor for one’s sanctum sanctorum

Red Cow’s inciting incident is the announcement that a red calf has been born. According to Jewish tradition (halacha), the ashes of a red cow shall purge the dead of all their sins. Widower Yehoshua (played by Gal Toren) tasks his only daughter, Binyamina (aka Beni, played by Avigail Kovari), to look after the young calf on whose tender shoulders the people of Israel’s salvation rests – soon enough, the two form a special bond.

The wait for imminent salvation ends up on a collision course with the bitter row between the father and daughter and their surroundings – the pair live in the East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Silwan. The father’s politics are on the ultranationalist side of the spectrum (“evicting [the settlement of] Amuna is just like rape”) whereas his teenage daughter is on a self-discovery journey, at the end of which she realises she is a lesbian. One of the more dominant artistic themes in the film is the colour red – a pagan motif, suggestive of human sacrifice: Benny’s red hair, the red piece of string tied round her wrist and of course, the colour of the newborn calf’s fur.

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הירשמו לרשימת התפוצה שלנו והישארו מעודכנים

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