I thought of the above when I was watching THE MOO MAN - showing this week on Rialto - after a particularly frantic, borderline-mad day. Described as “the remarkable story of a maverick farmer and his unruly cows,” and the surprise hit of Sundance Film Festival 2013, it is a documentary following several years in the life of farmer Stephen Hook.

One of my absolute favourite reads of last year - and one that I have recommended time and time again to people - is a book by an old friend of mine, TV and radio person Wallace Chapman. Called “Don't Just Do Something, Sit There: A Manifesto for Living the Slow Life”, it is a thoughtful read about living more slowly, a view promoted by the international "slow movement".

Born in Italy in the mid-1980s as the slow food movement (its conception was a protest against the opening of a dirty old McDonald's near Rome's Spanish Steps), it has since grown into a broader, global slow living subculture that happily embraces the idea of slowing down most elements of life, from food and fashion to wine and travel, and even sex. Chapman told the New Zealand Herald at the time of the book’s release that the slow movement's central principles are these: a holistic view of life, valuing quality over quantity, savouring rather stuffing, embracing bespoke over the mass-produced, environmental sustainability. "The slow-living process," he writes in his book, "involves simplifying your life and minimising distractions; reconnecting with 'place'; learning to resist transience and settle into a beloved location to discover its secrets." Another example of the phenomenon is Daniel Kahneman's bestselling book “Thinking, Fast and Slow”, and it’s a philosophy that I know I need more of in my life - and now.

I thought of the above when I was watching THE MOO MAN - showing this week on Rialto - after a particularly frantic, borderline-mad day. Described as “the remarkable story of a maverick farmer and his unruly cows,” and the surprise hit of Sundance Film Festival 2013, it is a documentary following several years in the life of farmer Stephen Hook.

Filmed over four years on the marshes of the Pevensey Levels in Sussex in the United Kingdom, it tells the story of Stephen’s attempt to save his family farm by turning his back on the cost cutting dairies and supermarkets, choosing instead to stay small and keep his close relationship with the herd. In true slow movement style he chooses to supply raw and organic milk as opposed to pasteurised - and is forced to display a health warning alongside his market stalls as a result - and care for his herd as he would his family, with care and respect all the way. His plans to save the farm do not always go down well with his 55 spirited and beautiful cows, and the tale is a right tear jerker at time as much as it is uplifting and at times, hilarious.

The film was selected as one of the twelve competitors in the World Cinema Documentary category at the aforementioned 2013 Sundance Film Festival, and the film's director, Andy Heathcote, has said that he and his partner Heike Bachelier, the film's co-producer and editor, had almost not applied to enter the festival because the entry fee was a lot for their small production company, Trufflepig Films, to find. "Sundance selection was something we never even thought to be a realistic possibility. We weren’t even going to apply,” he said. “For a hand-to-mouth DIY film outfit like us, the £75 fee might at least fill the petrol tank. However, can an indie outfit like us NOT apply to Sundance? No, of course not. The car was light on juice for a week, but I’m so very glad it was." The fact that it went on to do incredibly well is just glorious, as it is so far removed from many of the blockbusters that bombard our screens today.

The Moo Man is not like “The Bourne Conspiracy” or “The Hobbit”. There are no menacing cyber terrorists or giant monsters seeking to destroy the world, no CGI, no 3D option and definitely no battle scenes. There is nothing about THE MOO MAN that takes the word ‘block’ and puts it anywhere near ‘buster’ in fact, it is merely a celebration of the incredible bonds between man, animal and countryside and a beautiful - and slow - watch because of it. As well as being about a man who follows a slow - albeit hard - path, it is a slow and peaceful watch, and exactly what I needed to be plonked in front of after a nutter of a day.

As Spectator most eloquently said of the film: “It may even be the opposite of the likes of (blockbuster) “Pacific Rim” in that, instead of being a big, noisy film with nothing to say, it’s a small, quiet film with quite a lot to say.” Highly recommended.

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