Hross í oss (Of Horses and Men) (2013)

Director: Benedikt Erlingsson
Writer:    Benedikt Erlingsson
Cast:       Ingvar Eggert Siggurdson, Charlotte Boving
Language: Icelandic

It is a collection of interlocking stories about a group of rural Icelanders' relationships with their horses and each other. Its tone can be described as a black comedy about sex, death and fate set in exquisite locales. 

We see horses in many films but don't see many aspects involved in actually owning a horse that are not very glamorous. It is like how Pulp Fiction elevated people going to toilet as a major plot point when in most films it is something from daily life that is actually ignored. Tone of the film is set when a proud villager is taking a mare out to tame it under the watchful and voyeuristic eyes of his fellow villagers, only for it to get mounted by a wild stallion while he is sat on it. Embarrassed, he proceeds to shoot and kill the mare. Other stories involve people meeting their deaths on horses, how they go out to capture wild horses and one involving a man who kills his horse and empty its entrails to go inside of it to escape from cold. In some of these stories the horses acts as mere observers for the actions of the humans involved with them.

Overall it is a strange film but a very good watch. The soundtrack sounded a bit like Arabic music and I don't know whether the director is intending for us to be reminded of camels who are a big part in Arabic lifestyle. Since I didn't get any amazon links for the film, am just leaving a link for the Icelandic band Sigur Ros' music.

Rating: 3.5/5