Dir: Benedikt Erlingsson | Cast: Ingvar Eggert Sigurdsson, Charlotte Boving, Helgi Bjornsson | 81mins Comedy drama
Horses are the stars of Benedikt Erlingsson’s raw and startling debut which was Iceland’s submission to the 2014 Academy Awards.
In a remote Icelandic location lives a community of earthy horse-breeders along with their beasts. So attuned are the men to the animals’ needs they often mirror their equine physical urges and desires. This all takes place in a darkly amusing scene that sees a man (Ingvar Sigurdsson) pay a flirty visit to his female neighbour (Charlotte Boving) riding his perfectly trained white mare.
The woman’s frisky stallion pre-empts matters in a way that’s both hilarious and deeply embarrassing for all concerned. Another man (Steinn Armann Magnusson) rides his horse into the sea where they both boldly swim out to a Russian trawler, begging the captain for vodka. There’s a raw savageness to these startling sorties which feel natural yet strangely bizarre; taking us all by surprise.
Of Horses and Men captures the sensitive but feral nature of the horses living in symbiosis with their (at times) equally wild owners in this remote and magnificent landscape. Even the minimal dialogue seems redundant in a narrative told expressively through Bergsteinn Bjoergulfsson’s extraordinary images: each vignette is introduced in the close-up of a horse’s eye. Erlingsson never loses his sense of humour in conveying the quirkiness of his Icelandic characters who perform with consummate ease and gracefulness in complete harmony with the animals they train and nurture. David Thor Jonsson’s rousing original score is played on traditional European instruments in this staggering original feature that won Best New Director, San Sebastian 2013 @MeredithTaylor
ON SUBSCRIPTION AT BFI PLAYER