Iceland’s Oscar submission and theatre director Benedikt Erlingsson’s debut, Of Horses and Menis a darkly funny, inventive and very distinctive film set in a quirky horse-riding community in stunning rural Iceland.
Pondering the relationship between man and horse (the direct translation of the original title is ‘Horse in us’) Erlingsson tells stories of horse-owners and their beloved animals, with each vignette introduced by a close-up of a horse with its owners’ face reflected in its eyes.
Erlingsson depicts the struggles, romances and jealousies of key members of this small and very horsey Icelandic hamlet, inflected with a bone-dry humour, and set against a memorably beautiful landscape.