Of Horses and Men **** (2013) – Movie Review

This rich and strange 2013 Icelandic tragi-comic charmer (originally Hross í oss) is written and directed by Benedikt Erlingsson and produced by fellow director Friðrik Þór Friðriksson. It was selected as the Icelandic entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 86th Academy Awards in 2014, but alas was not nominated. The Oscars really need to do better, or just more, with ‘foreign’ films.

Ingvar Eggert Sigurðsson.

The film presents a spaced-out collection of half a dozen interlocking stories about a remote rural community of Icelanders and their relationships with their horses and each other. The horses’ tales are little black comedy cameos of sex, death and the cruelty of fate. How’s this for starters? It begins with a man (Ingvar Eggert Sigurðsson) proudly taking his mare out for a trot, attracting admiring looks from other locals, That is, until a neighbouring black stallion has another idea, and actually does the dirty deed when the man’s still on the mare, resulting in him shooting the steed.

Kristbjörg Kjeld.

All chilly landscape and bad weather, it is arguably the most stunning looking film all year. Also, more importantly, it’s unique. It plays like a deranged horror movie, darkly humorous with its weird Icelandic sense of humour, sometimes funny, sometimes shocking, sometimes touching, and ultimately really scary too. With marvellous, menacing cinematography and a clashing score of choral works and drumming, this is a film as unsettling and disturbing as they come. And somehow it’s seductive and entertaining too.

Charlotte Bøving, Maria Ellingsen and Kristbjörg Kjeld also star.

(C) Derek Winnert 2014 Movie Review

Link to Derek Winnert’s home page for more film reviews: http://derekwinnert.com/

Maria Ellingsen.