Gunda

Gunda (2021) is Victor Kosakovsky's documentary, and you can watch it online on iFILM. No narrator. No music. No interviews. Just a black-and-white camera staying close to a mother pig named Gunda, two cows, and a chicken with one leg.

The film treats an ordinary farm like the setting of a feature drama. Gunda leads her newborn piglets out for their first steps, a cow turns her ear toward the grass, the one-legged hen figures out how to move through the yard. Long takes let you hear breathing, hooves, wind. Give it a few minutes and the animals stop reading as livestock and start reading as individuals.

Joaquin Phoenix served as executive producer, and the film traveled the major festival circuit to wide critical praise. This is slow, hypnotic cinema for viewers willing to look without being told what to feel — and its closing minutes land harder than any line of dialogue could. Stream Gunda (2021) online on iFILM.