Two farmers search for a missing cow.
DAISY is used with permission from Torbjorn Edwall. Learn more at [ Ссылка ].
Lars and Lena are a couple eking out a living on a dairy farm. One of their cows, Daisy, has gone missing and they go out looking for her. But their search is frustrating and odd, and they fail to find her.
Their inability to find Daisy seems to spark a logistical and existential crisis in Lars, who begins to look at their way of life in a new way. As their search deepens, they uncover a deeper mystery that will have them questioning themselves and the world as they know it.
Directed and written by Torbjorn Edwall, this wry, visually stunning mystery-drama uses the jumping-off point of a beloved cow's disappearance as both a meditation on humankind's stewardship of nature, an exploration of the relationship between man and animal and the set-up for a delightfully off-the-wall ending.
The film is formally thoughtful, with its moody, elegant cinematography endowing the humble environs of the dairy farm with an air of mystery and foreboding. The sometimes eerie sound design and musical score complement the often striking images and also add to the growing mystery of the film, especially as Lena and Lars reckons with Daisy's odd disappearance.
These distinctive formal strategies create a sense that Daisy's disappearance isn't just an occupational hazard, but symbolic of something much deeper and more enigmatic, and Lars especially spends the film probing the emerging existential crisis that Daisy's disappearance sparks in him. Lena wants to tackle the problem pragmatically, using modern methods like security cameras to keep track of their herd. But Lars is reluctant since the farm has been in his family for generations, and he believes in the methods used by his father and grandfather before him.
Actor Peter Morlin plays Lars with both a farmer's curmudgeonly demeanor and a dawning philosophical bent that emerges when his worldview and routines are disrupted by Daisy's disappearance. As Lena, actor Emma Broome is his practical, no-nonsense foil, confronting the ups and downs of life with a pragmatic acceptance. Both are stunned when Lars finally finds Daisy, only to open up a much deeper realization that will force Lars to question everything he's ever known and done.
That revelation comes via a genuinely wild and off-beat final sequence, rendered with stunning use of special effects and a very droll, dry sense of humor. It's easy to read the ending of DAISY as a punchline of sorts, and on some level, its unexpected humor and absurdity make for a truly memorable storytelling experience. But the film is also too exceptionally well-crafted and thoughtfully told to make it just a joke. Daisy's final images and message resonate unexpectedly well after the film is over, asking us questions about our use of natural resources, their inevitable disappearance and the necessity of adaptation. We have gone as far as we can with what we had, and now we must adapt to the consequences.
