The American-Norwegian documentary film Gunda, directed, co-written and co-edited by Russian director Viktor Kossakovsky is now showing in cinemas. The nonverbal film observes the life of pigs, chicken and cows on rural farms in an aesthetic style. It gained broader attention when Joaquin Phoenix stepped in as executive producer.
It is interesting to get so close to the animals and spend time just calmly watching them walking around and doing their thing but I had wished for a more natural approach and felt there was a little too much manipulation with sounddesign and videoediting that took me out of the experience.
Here is an interesting L.A. Times article about how the film came to be.
Article: Joaquin Phoenix explains why ‘Gunda’ isn’t vegan propaganda. It’s ‘just facts’
If you are interested in similar films you can try Our Daily Bread (Unser täglich Brot) by Nikolaus Geyrhalter from 2005, available on Mubi and Leviathan by Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Véréna Paravel from 2012.
Unser täglich Brot – ★★★★
Leviathan – ★★★★½
The latest film by British filmmaker Andrea Arnold with the title Cow that premiered this year at Cannes also has a similar topic and follows a cow and her calf in a seemingly more naturalistic approach.