Of Horses and Men

Many already know about Iceland’s lunar landscape, geysers and volcanic ash. But the discovery that the island has its own breed of dinky horses will be news to some. They have a distinctive high-kneed trot too, as we see in this curious drama about a horsey rural community. Straight-backed alpha male Kolbeinn (Ingvar Eggert Sigurdsson) draws admiring glances when taking his white mare out for a run. However, the black stallion in the next field has its own ideas, and soon nature takes its course – maybe reflecting its female owner’s desires for the hunky horseman. Writer-director Benedikt Erlingsson’s magnificently rugged-looking film offers darkly comic mishaps that play out over a series of sly vignettes. It highlights the universality of animal instincts and is keen to show the folly of man’s attempts to lord it over his surroundings. But the plinky-plonk soundtrack tries too hard to be ‘quirky’, as if the film can’t quite take itself seriously. The result is too piecemeal to be properly moving, yet it’s an arresting one-off. ‘Of Horses and Men’ is a disarming panorama of equine beauty and human eccentricity.