By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Benedikt Erlingsson
Original language title: Hross í oss
Country: germany, iceland, norway
Year: 2015
Running time: 81
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3074732/combined
Kyle says: “OF HORSES AND MEN marks an impressive feature film debut by Icelandic stage director Benedikt Erlingsson, as well as film debuts by many of his theater actor colleagues. Beautifully conceived and observed, with the exquisite but forbidding landscapes spectacularly photographed by Bergsteinn Björgúlfsson, this is a story of a millennium-old symbiosis between men and women and their horses. {Long-time mavens of New Directors/New Films will recall a similarity between this film and THE STORY OF THE WEEPING CAMEL (2003), focusing on Mongolian camels instead of horses.
“Composed of numerous vignettes, some based on childhood incidents and others fanciful, the beauty of the landscape also frames terrible accidents as well as humorous incidents. One man swims on his horse out to a departing freighter to procure liquor, only to die because of a linguistic misunderstanding of the liquid he returns with. Another man accidentally drives off a cliff in a tractor. Yet a barbwire fence accidentally blinds another. Still another barely survives a sub-zero storm by killing his horse, all the while crying hysterically, to spend the night inside the corpse for warmth. An actual incident according to the director, film fans will be reminded of the moment in THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK (1980) when Han Solo slices open his Tauntaun to save the life of Luke Skywalker. The ablest wrangler of them all is a horsewoman who gathers a number of runaway horses and returns them to her obviously admiring male horsemen. Throughout we see reflections in the eyes of horses of people and machinery they interact with.
“Director Erlingsson explained that more time was spent casting the horses than the actors. He also made an incisive comment about being a director: ‘I need to be tender and available and open.’ Cinematographer Björgúlfsson related his experience in horse direction: since you cannot tell a horse where to look, if you want the stallion to gaze at the camera, you must place a mare there. OF HORSES AND MEN is a unique view of a way of life virtually unknown to most filmgoers, and is therefore highly recommended 4 cats
“Seen Monday, March 24, 2014, New Directors/New Films at the Walter Reade Theater, Film Society of Lincoln Center, New York.”
Bruce says: “OF HORSES AND MEN is a film one might expect from a fictional grandson of Robert Bresson, perhaps a director of Bresson’s earthy sensibility and a humorous quirkiness which is a product of a new generation. There is no question that OF HORSES AND MEN is unlike any film you have seen – it is a true original. Told in vignettes, the film examines the relationships between human and horse. Not just any horse but the sturdy horse with very short legs indigenous to Iceland. The film is at times funny, sad, horrifying, brutal and nostalgic. With a use of trained and untrained actors, the mix is often a bit jagged at the edges. While many of Benedikt Erlingsson’s directorial decisions create a decisive reality, there is little character development for the viewer to draw upon.
“Each vignette begins with a reflection in a specific horse’s eye. Always foreboding we realize that things are not going to end happily in many of the tales. Atlthough human relationships are somewhat blurry at the beginning of the film it is ultimately a love story of how Kolbeinn (Eggert Sigurðsson) and Solveing (Charlotte Bøving, neighboring farmers ultimately and raucously connect. The film opens with Kolbeinn dropping by for tea, a somewhat stilted event. As he climbs on his mare to leave, a stallion mounts her. It is an absurdly embarrassing moment.
“Next, a local drunk rides his horse to sea to meet a Russian freighter in hopes of scoring some vodka. Another episode involves tranquilizing a horse for castration. In the most bizarre and disturbing vignette a Spanish tourist rides a horse into the vast terrain where they encounter a blizzard. Knowing they will both die, he kills the horse, slits open its belly and crawls inside the warm body to avoid freezing to death. Finally, Kolbeinn and Soleving get together to round up the wild horses which roam the nearby mountains. Horses are not the only thing on their minds, however, and their ultimate coupling (about as graceful as the two horses at the beginning of the film) is hilarious.
“Benedikt Erlingsson is a renowned stage director who is venturing into a new medium. Hopefully he has discovered a new comfort zone in cinema. I can’t wait to see what he does next. 4 cats
“(OF HORSES AND MEN screened at the 2014 New Directors/New Films series jointly sponsored by The Museum of Modern Art and The Film Society of Lincoln Center.)”