Film Review: The Turin Horse (15) (Hungary/France/Germany/Switzerland/USA 2011) (Hungarian & German with English Subtitles) (Director: Bela Tarr), Saturday 16.06.2012 13:10, Filmhouse Screen Three, Edinburgh. 

Visually this film is ravishing in its beauty, every frame could be taken from the film and presented as a work of art. The tone, shadow, colour (although the film is in black and white) and crispness of image is continually stunning.

The quality of the visual image is just as well as the content of what happens and it's pacing is unremittingly grim, and given that it goes on for 2H 35Min, you need to make sure you have a comfortable seat. Essentially it is the final struggling last few days of a man and his adult daughter who live of the land in a barren landscape.

The music which accompanies the film uses a repeated pattern which feels Eastern European/Soviet. The music accompanies the image well and contributes to a sense of foreboding.

The image quality though does keep you watching and although the subject matter feels heavy, by sticking with the film I found that there is beauty to be seen in the economy of action and understood roles for the central characters to try to ensure their survival for as long as possible.

This is a film I would say would have to be seen in a Cinema, to assist with concentration and to assist by the scale to have a greater sense of its beauty. I would recommend, though not for people whose primary interest when going to the cinema is escapism.

Rating: 08/10.