The director Benedikt Erlingsson, known more to fans of Icelandic films as an actor, has directed his first debut film “Of Horses and Men”, winning also the New Director Award at San Sebastián earlier this year and the film became the Icelandic nomination for the Oscars.

The film that casts the cream of Icelandic actors, is an odd-humored country romance about the human streak in the horse and the horse in the human. Everyone who lives in the small valley has horses. So as for everyone getting along – being good or bad neighbors, like always in a small community, also the horses have their own relationships. It does not take a long time when love and death become interlaced with immense consequences for both of the parties in the film – horses and men.

“Of Horses and Men” is fresh, dramatic yet in its very own way a funny picture telling stories about the fortunes of the people in the countryside through the horses’ perception.

Maria Reinup