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Dariush Mehrjui’s THE COW is credited as making modern Iranian cinema possible. As the story goes, Ayatollah Khomeini liked the film, allowing it to play in theaters across Iran, despite being approved and partially funded by the Shah’s government. In 1971, the film was smuggled out of Iran and played at the Venice Film Festival, where is won awards and became the first Iranian film to get a wide reception outside Iran. Taking a page from the French New Wave, this neo-realistic drama is like THE BICYCLE THIEF combined with UMBERTO D.

Based on Gholan-Hossein Saedi’s play, the story follows Masht Hassan (Ezzatolah Entezami), a man who holds a high status in his village because he owns the only cow in miles. His relationship with his animal is move loving than his relationship with his wife. A great deal of his personality is wrapped up in owning the cow. One day while he is away on business, the cow mysteriously dies. The town’s smartest man Eslam (Ali Nassirian) believes that Hassan won’t be able to handle the news and convinces the town to cover it up, telling Hassan that the cow ran away and that the local thug Esmayil went to find the beast. When Hassan does return, no version of the story is comforting. Slowly, Hassan slips into insanity, eventually taking on the role as his cow.

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Michael Apted’s brilliant documentary series has checked in with the same group of people every seven years since they were seven. As the title suggests, this installment is the third in the series. Now as young adults, some of the subjects have stronger opinions about the way they are portrayed in the previous two films. Some have stayed the same, while others have taken surprising turns. Being older, the young men and women begin to comment on the others, as well as their pasts.

In the first film, John, Charles and Andrew were attending the same lavish pre-preparatory school. John and Andrew have gone onto the same colleges they said they would attend at seven. However, John, the most conservative of the group, points out that the films make it seem like they’ve had it easy, underplaying the hard work that went into how they got where they are today. Charles didn’t make it into Oxford as he planned at seven, but rather enjoys avoiding the pre-prep to Oxford conveyor belt. Since the first film, both Charles and Andrew’s parents divorced. While Andrew seems reconciled to the split, Charles seems to struggle with how it really has affected him. When asked about their opportunities in life, John believes it’s his duty to give back to England, which has given him so much. Charles agrees, but adds that they have no more opportunities than any of the others in the series.

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