The Calf Doll

Ankur Hooda / India / 2026 / World Premiere / 90 min

We are far out in the countryside somewhere in India. But you can’t see that, because a mysterious fog of smog hangs over the small village, where a retired professor to his great despair has seen his cow give birth to a stillborn calf. Where there should have been life, there is death. A small break in the natural order of things, and perhaps even in the fabric of reality. In his despair, he defies his wife’s warnings and resorts to a forbidden ritual, making a doll out of the dead calf’s skin. And here begins a simple and picturesque fable in which a door to the realm of the possibilities is wide open.

Indian filmmaker and poet Ankar Hooda’s debut film may appear to be a work of fiction, but is the result of a process in which the real inhabitants of the village play alternative versions of themselves in their own environment, based on improvisations and their own experiences. The result is magical and extraordinarily beautiful. ‘The Calf Doll’ is a film that, rather than reminding us of any single film or tradition, simply reminds us of the magic of experiencing genuine, poetic film art on the big screen.