The Cow

The Cow (1989) is Aleksandr Petrov's hand-painted drama from a story by Andrei Platonov, and you can watch it online on iFILM. Ten minutes brought to life in paint on glass.

A family lives at a remote railway halt, where young Vasya Rubtsov treats their cow almost as his closest friend. He remembers how she fed everyone with her milk and how she grieved when her calf was sold for slaughter. Losing the animal becomes the boy's first real sorrow — quiet, grown-up, with none of the easy tears.

Petrov painted every frame with his fingertips on glass, the technique that would later win him an Oscar for The Old Man and the Sea. The Cow already reached an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Short. Rare is the ten-minute film that lands as hard as a feature. Stream The Cow (1989) online on iFILM.