'An American epic, a powerful family and coming-of-age story.'
'An American epic, a powerful family and coming-of-age story.'
The documentary follows young cowboy Crowley over ten years as he comes of age in the vastness of Colorado. On his rocky path, he endures loss, separation, and shattered dreams—yet he faces life with his head held high, carrying the unshakable resolve of a cowboy who never backs down. An honest tale from the heartland of America.
The Cowboy opens to the distorted sounds of a folk guitar and to picturesque images of the American West. From behind the camera, André Hörmann invites Crowley, a young man in his early twenties, to explain once more what it takes to live the life of a cowboy. Wearing his hat, Crowley remains silent, trying to remember what he said when the director asked him the same question ten years earlier. The young adult is then seen as a child again, an eleven-year-old reciting, sure of himself, an archetypal definition of a cowboy. From the outset, The Cowboy reveals the scope of its ambition: to cover the life of a young man, from his childhood in Colorado in 2015 to his entering into adulthood and starting an independent life in Texas, in the city of Happy, in 2024.
How does one become oneself within a fixed model and in a world where the very town names affirm our happiness? More than just an initiatory story, André Hörmann’s film (who put together and completed several short films that already focused on Crowley) offers a nuanced portrait of Americana and its archetypes. Although the film begins with a seemingly almost stereotyped model of life in the West, the initial foundation of values and imperatives gradually cracks. Crowley finds himself rapidly confronted with disillusionment and family dramas, yet his life is captured without any ostentation and moral judgment.
Thomas Gerber (selection committe, Semaine de la Critique Locarno)
Valentina Grignoli - laRegione
The Moveable Fest (by Stephen Saito):
Locarno Film Fest 2025 Review: André Hörmann’s “The Cowboy” Shows a Young Man Saddled Beyond His Years
Blickpunkt Film (by Heike Angemaier):
REVIEW LOCARNO: „The Cowboy“
Unseen Films (by Steve Kopian):
The Cowboy(2025) Locarno 2025
laRegione (by Valentina Grignoli):
'The Cowboy’, la tenerezza di uno sguardo che cresce
© Locarno Film Festival / Ti-Press
a film by ANDRÉ HÖRMANN
with CROWLEY MCCUISTION, YANCIE MCCUISTION FARRAH LEE, CHANEY MCCUISTION, CURT MCCUISTION
director of photography TOM BERGMANN co-author and editor VINCENT ASSMANN
sound NIKOLA CHAPELLE and OUSSAMA ABDOUH music ROGER GOULA sound design and mix ALEX RUBIN, BVFT
production manager BETTINA MORLOCK associate producer NEVO SHINAAR commissioning editor KATHRIN BRINKMANN
co-producer MARK MITTEN producer HEIKE KUNZE writer and director ANDRÉ HÖRMANN
a TELEKULT PRODUCTION in co-production with MITTEN MEDIA and ZDF in collaboration with ARTE supported with funds from FILMFÖRDERUNGSANSTALT, FILMFEHRNSEHFONDS BAYERN, DEUTSCHER FILMFÖRDERFONDS and KURATORIUM JUNGER DEUTSCHER FILM
Germany/USA 2025 | 90 min | color | DCP | Dolby Digital 5.1 | English | French or German subtitles
TELEKULT
Film- und Medienproduktion GmbH
Phone: +49 30 - 44 67 37-6
www.telekult.de
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