The Calf Doll

When his cow gives birth to a stillborn calf and his farmhand leaves for the city, a retired teacher in rural India is at his wits’ end. To get his only cow to produce milk again, he has the stillborn calf's body made into a life-like, stuffed calf doll in an attempt to deceive its mother. His wife advises against it; the traditional practice is officially banned. That an educated man should nevertheless resort to such a dubious ritual is a measure of his desperation. And when the cow isn’t fooled and stray dogs start tearing at the doll, the loss feels like something far greater than the lost supply of milk.

The Calf Doll is a docudrama about the price of progress. The retired teacher and his wife have been left behind in the village after their children moved to the city. They are easy prey for unscrupulous traders who buy up livestock from the aging rural population for far less than it’s worth. In the distance, long freight trains thunder by, their clickety-clack marking the beat of an industrial future. Shrouded in blue winter mist, The Calf Doll is a requiem for a way of life that is disappearing.