By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Omar E. Ospina Giraldo
Starring: Amanda Maldonado | Carlos Fernández | Jesus David Reyes | José David Sierra | Jose Sandoval
Year: 2026
Running time: 80
IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt43744406/
Val says: “Giraldo’s debut film is a quiet meditation on a series of horrific massacres precipitated by political unrest in Colombia in the 1990s. The horror and violence occurs offscreen, and the audience is left to sit with the children and families left behind. The titular demon is unsettling only in its unexpected appearances. There is a lot I appreciated about this film – Giraldo’s use of revalatory camera movements and choreographed cinematography to bring in the mythical elements was stunning. The slow pace brought forward the discomfort of waiting for someone who will never arrive. The magical elements and the gorgeously lit frames were a brilliant marriage of the spiritual and the physical – the swamp with the mangroves were the source of the magic and essential to this particular horror being realized visually. It was less than 90 minutes, but some of the repetition felt like too much for me at times, although a good meditation needs a mantra. I also don’t know if I understood it at all. A beautiful and well-executed (if not a bit thematically opaque) film, 3.5 cats.
“Sidenote – much like Tommaso Santambrogio’s OCEANS ARE THE REAL CONTINENTS, Bovine is completely shot in black and white, but in a setting that must have been bursting with color! The opening scene of Continents made me feel like the entirety of Bovine – I wished it was in color so I could see the gorgeous landscape!”