Film Review: Of Horses and Men (15) (Iceland/Germany 2013) (Director: Benedict Erlingsson) (Icelandic/Swedish & English with English Subtitles), Filmhouse, Screen Two, Edinburgh, Saturday 19.07.2014, 18:15

I had gone to see this due to what appears to me to be very odd circumstances. My father phoned me one evening to inform me of this film he had been reading about and ask if I knew of it. My father has very little knowledge of contemporary cinema and it is even stranger that he is informing me of a film that I had not noticed up until that point. While he was on the phone, I noticed that it was going to be coming on at the Filmhouse in approx three weeks from then. 

I thought if I did not go to see the film and he were to ask about it in future, how could I then expect him to put up with me dribbling on about other films. Though I did take the opportunity to recommend to him that he tries to seek out 'Le Quattro Volte' (2010), the charming, nearly wordless film about a goat-herder and his goats in northern Italy. 

Of Horses and Men focuses upon very rural communities in Iceland and how these people relay upon the relationships they have with their horses. Some of these communities and their horses interconnect. It is the depiction of these connections, their sub-groupings and further splinterings that provides the meat to what would otherwise be a very slight film. 

The film feels quite honest in it's depiction of how in rural life there are times when nothing is as interesting as the lives of those who live near by. The film is quirky, it has scenes that are warming and several scenes that are laugh-out-load funny. It has beautiful cinematography, or should that be, beautiful landscape that has been captured on camera. It was refreshing after some of the shit I've seen recently (Godzilla, Spidey etc.), though at the same time, I cannot claim this to be a cracker. Though again you could do a lot worse than spending 80 minutes with this very pleasant film. 

Rating: 07/10.