Francisca Alegria The Cow That Sang A Song About The Future

Annual Top Films Lists

Top 100 Most Anticipated Foreign Films of 2022: #97. Francisca Alegria’s The Cow That Sang A Song About The Future

Published on January 6, 2022

The Cow That Sang A Song About The Future

When it comes time to developing the next generation of auteurs, the nation of Chile has provided more than a fair share. The well has not been dry in the past two decades with the likes of Pablo Larraín, Pablo Trapero, Dominga Sotomayor, Sebastián Silva and Sebastian Lelio taking over the film fest circuit and recently added, Sundance has supported the likes of Maite Alberdi, Alejandro Fernández Almendras, Marcela Said and in 2022: Francisca Alegria. The filmmaker saw her short film And All the Sky Fit in the Dead Cow’s Eye win Sundance’s Short Film Jury Award: International Fiction award in 2016 and has been in development process for her feature debut since 2017. The Cow that Sang a Song About the Future was selected for both the Sundance Screenwriters and Directors Lab in 2017 and with some support by the Cinereach folks and coin via European Work in Progress (EWIP), her debut features the likes of Leonor Varela, Mia Maestro, Alfredo Castro and a cast of four-legged and tail critters. Alegria works with cinematographer Inti Briones (his most recent work being Song Without a Name – watch interview).

Gist: Cecilia (45) and her two children travel to her father’s dairy farm in the south of Chile after a long time. Once there, she runs into her mother, Magdalena (33) who’s suicide marked the family until today. While agonizing animals sing about the future of this family, Cecilia starts a path of understanding her mother, as she begins listening to nature’s voice.

Release Date/Prediction: Alegria‘s The Cow That Sang A Song About The Future was one of the ten projects selected for the World Cinema Dramatic Competition at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival. Expect this to play on the world film festival circuit for the rest of the year.

Eric Lavallée

Eric Lavallée is the founder, CEO, editor-in-chief, film journalist and critic at IONCINEMA.com (founded in 2000). Eric is a regular at Sundance, Cannes and TIFF. He has a BFA in Film Studies at the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema. In 2013 he served as a Narrative Competition Jury Member at the SXSW Film Festival. He was an associate producer on Mark Jackson's This Teacher (2018 LA Film Festival, 2018 BFI London). In 2022 he served as a New Flesh Comp for Best First Feature at the 2022 Fantasia Intl. Film Festival. Current top films for 2022 include Tár (Todd Field), All That Breathes (Shaunak Sen), Aftersun (Charlotte Wells).