Von Menschen und Pferden

Of Horses and Men, in Icelandic; Hross í Oss.

A film by actor, author and director Benedikt Erlingsson and produced by Fridrik Thor Fridriksson.

I encourage everyone to see it and form their own opinions.

Tom Robbins said: "The function of the artist is to provide what life does not".

Apparently Tom has never been to Iceland. I truly enjoyed this magnificent journey, diving into the deep end of the pool with a talented group of artists/professionals — and horses! — taking chances (in my opinion with great success) that I have never seen before in Icelandic films (if anywhere else) coming out with loads of beautiful - and some unforgettable moments...

One of the better films I have seen in a good while; amongst several other factors, the cinematography blew my mind. But then again, this is Iceland, Icelandic landscape, Icelandic horses, etc. etc.

Will be thoroughly surprised if this film does not do extremely well.

Iceland has not, as for example other Scandinavian countries such as Denmark and Sweden, a real film history. In the new century however the Icelandic film industry is slowly maturing and regularly Icelandic films reach a foreign audience. Since 1999 there is a yearly Edda film award in Iceland.

A difficulty in reviewing Icelandig films, at least in my opinion, is that the landscape in Iceland is so beautiful that it sometimes compensates for a mediocre film. It often requires some reflection to seperate these two elements.

"Of horses and men" is, as the title already indicates, about the relation between men and horses in Iceland. The film consists of a number of episodes and each episode starts with a close up of the eye of a horse with a man reflected in it.

The first epsisode is the most striking one, the one you will remember for the longest time and the one from which the filmposter is derived. A man goes visiting his female neighbour with romantic intentions. In Iceland the distance to your neighbour can be quite large, so he travels by horse. At the end of the visit it turns out that the horses have been much more decisive in pursuing their amorous intentions than the man himself.

Iceland is a sparsely populated land and so the relation between men and nature is more important than in more densely populated countries. Two years later an Icelandic film about the relationship between rams and men was released ("Rams", 2015, Grimur Hakonarson). Indicative for the growing populatiy of Icelandic cinema is the fact that in 2020 an Australian remake was made ("Rams", Jeremy Sims).

Benedikt Erlingsson's first film, horses are a way of life in Iceland, and here they are honored for their compact bodies, ethereal faces, unique gaits, stamina, and for their endurance in a country not known for plush green hills and sunshine.

There is sly and delightful humor. The actors are on point. A bonus is that everyone who lives in this area obviously is totally at ease in the saddle. There was no need for stand-ins because what is seen is what happened during the filming.

The photography is exceptional, giving beauty to a vista of iron gray crags. It is an earthy tale of all too human humans.

Benedikt Erlingsson's loosely connected series of black comedy horse vignettes is a strange sort of creature. Visually striking and certainly contains quite a few striking visual talking points, but the central thrust of the narrative is rather trampled over by the other mini narratives which beyond adding a dash of grim slapstick don't contribute much. Nice to see those beautiful landscapes, the lovely horses running through the fields, those fine jumpers and the great Ingvar Eggert Sigurðsson in a central role but it doesn't function as well as Benedikt's equally beautiful Women at War from a few years after.

The one thing that Iceland has no shortage of, apart from ice that is, is scenery and director Benedikt Erlingsson makes great use of it in this strange tale that supposedly describes man's relationship with the horse but which lapses into the surreal often enough for us to wonder if Erlingsson has something else in mind. Indeed, after the scenery, it is the horses who are the real stars here, though if you are a horse lover, the few scenes where they are killed and mutilated by the good folk of Iceland, should give you pause, (though the humans don't come out of it too well, either). It's more like something you might get from the likes of Roy Andersson while on holiday and it's quirky enough to be of more than passing interest. It's also quite short.