Holy Cow (2024) Review: Comté, Grief and Growing Up

Is Holy Cow worth watching?

Yes. Holy Cow is a warm, scrappy and surprisingly tender coming-of-age film, rooted in the fields and dairies of rural France and carried by a cast of mostly non-professional actors who feel utterly real. Louise Courvoisier’s debut finds humour and sweetness in a story of grief and responsibility without ever tipping into sentimentality. The reservation is a loose, meandering structure: the plot is slight, and viewers expecting a tightly built underdog story may find it more of a mood than a narrative.

What is Holy Cow about?

Totone (Clément Faveau) is 18 and more interested in partying, brawling at village fairs and drinking with his friends than in any kind of future. That changes when the sudden death of his father, a cheesemaker, leaves him responsible for his seven-year-old sister, Claire (Luna Garret), and for finding a way to support them both.

With no money and few skills, Totone hatches an ambitious plan: to make a wheel of Comté, the famous local cheese, good enough to win a gold medal and a cash prize at a regional agricultural competition. There is one small problem. He has never made cheese himself, and his methods of getting what he needs are not always entirely honest.

Holy Cow, known in France as Vingt Dieux, is a French production in French, written and directed by Courvoisier. Set in the Jura region where she grew up, it premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2024.

A rural France rarely seen on screen

Courvoisier’s knowledge of the Jura is evident in every frame. The film captures the rolling hills, dairies and small-town rituals of a farming community with an insider’s eye, avoiding both postcard nostalgia and grim social realism. Cheesemaking is shown in careful, tactile detail, from the handling of milk to the long wait for a wheel to age, and the process becomes a quietly satisfying metaphor for Totone’s own slow maturing.

The film also has a sharp sense of humour. Village fairs, clumsy flirtations and Totone’s increasingly desperate schemes are played with a light, comic touch, and the rhythm of rural life gives the story an unhurried, lived-in feel.

Non-professional actors, real presence

The cast, drawn largely from the local community, is the film’s great strength. Clément Faveau makes Totone both exasperating and endearing, a young man whose bravado barely conceals his fear and grief. His scenes with Luna Garret, a natural and funny young performer, give the film its emotional heart; their sibling bond is portrayed without a false note.

Mathis Bernard and Dimitry Baudry, as Totone’s friends, bring rowdy energy and loyalty, and the film is especially good on the camaraderie of young men who have few prospects but a lot of time on their hands. A young woman who runs her own dairy farm becomes a key figure in Totone’s plans, and her relationship with him is handled with refreshing frankness.

A slender plot, loosely told

Holy Cow’s relaxed structure is both its charm and its limitation. The plot is slender, and some scenes drift without adding much, so the film can feel episodic. The central competition provides a goal but not much tension, and viewers looking for a conventional arc of struggle and triumph may be underwhelmed. Some of Totone’s more reckless behaviour is also treated with an indulgence that not every viewer will share.

Who should watch Holy Cow?

It is a delightful choice for fans of French cinema, coming-of-age stories and films about rural life, as well as anyone who enjoyed films built on non-professional performances. It contains frank sexual content, nudity, heavy drinking and some fighting, so it is best for adults and older teens. Food lovers, and cheese lovers in particular, will find it especially satisfying.

If Holy Cow appeals, try these French films:

• La Haine, a far angrier portrait of young men with time on their hands, set in the Paris suburbs rather than the countryside.
• Anatomy of a Fall, a very different drama that also explores how a child copes after the sudden loss of a father.

More films in this register can be found in our drama section.

The verdict

Holy Cow is a small, earthy and big-hearted debut that turns a story of grief and responsibility into a funny, affectionate portrait of rural youth. Its loose structure keeps it modest, but Courvoisier’s eye for place and her remarkable young cast make it a genuine pleasure.

Rating: 4.2/5