HOLY COWBOYS
A short documentary film
In small-town India, where cows are considered sacred, a teenaged boy and his group of friends set off on a quest to become saviors of the holy cow.
What People Are Saying
“Chopra’s lens is firmly focused on the ironies that enable these horrors in the first place, compelling viewers to rethink how compassion and seemingly innocuous values can be channelled and exploited. “
“a strikingly intimate documentary about India’s “cow vigilantes.”
“a remarkable look at radicalization, employing a hybrid approach to documentary…This dazzlingly-shot short serves as an increasingly relevant caution for our divided world. ”
“Actually such a fascinating event being covered in this documentary.”
HOLY COWBOYS WINS THE GRAND JURY PRIZE AT DOC NYC
“Holy Cowboys stands out in terms of urgency and craft in filmmaking. The documentary brings to the fore how, under the guise of protecting cows and maintaining purity, acts of violence are used to terrorize a minoritized community. The jury commends Varun Chopra for his courage in making a film that is tragically universal.”
The 2022 winning Short film qualifies for consideration in the Documentary Short Subject category of the annual Academy Awards®
Press
HOLY COWBOYS ON 2022 IDA DOCUMENTARY SHORTLIST
A handful of awards season frontrunners is starting to emerge with the announcement of the IDA Documentary Awards Shortlists. Holy Cowboys was on the Best Short Documentary Shortlist.
HOLY COWBOYS ON 2023 DOC NYC SHORTLIST
The shortlist for DOC NYC, the largest documentary festival in the U.S has become a key indicator and predictor for the Academy Awards’ documentary category. Holy Cowboys was on the Best Shorts shortlist among the leading awards contenders of the year.
“Unfolding like a coming-of-age story, Varun Chopra’s loosely fictionalised documentary Holy Cowboys is a topical, engrossing inquiry into the politicisation of compassion.”
— IFFR”
“In a monumental work of short filmmaking, artist Varun Chopra has found the fulcrum upon which his country’s future rests and determines that it is based on a “potent irony”. A story of politics at the micro-level, Holy Cowboys is a dispatch from rural India at a momentous time for the country…it is also simply one of the most beautiful and innovatively constructed short films of the year. ”
— Review by Short of the Week
“For the courageous political message. The director awakens us by harshly, crudely but dutifully documenting a contradictory, extreme, hypocritical reality in the grip of a stream of acts of hatred and intolerance, which in the end are not solely religious. An important film that reminds us how much cinema also plays a role in stimulating critical thinking by awakening awareness in us. The society depicted in Holy Cowboys in some way depicts all societies: the line between good and evil is thin and universal, and the risk of falling on the wrong side is constant and common. ”
— Jury, CinemaAmbiente