The Turin Horse
dir. Béla Tarr · 2011
Life is a struggle against relentless forces that can strip away meaning and hope.
"The Turin Horse" is a haunting meditation on existence, where the relentless force of nature mirrors the despair of rural life. With its stark visuals and slow pacing, it invites viewers to confront the weight of suffering and the inevitability of fate.
A monumental windstorm and an abused horse's refusal to work or eat signal the beginning of the end for a poor farmer and his daughter.
Full synopsisspoilers
1889. German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche witnessed the whipping of a horse while traveling in Turin, Italy. He tossed his arms around the horse's neck to protect it then collapsed to the ground. In less than one month, Nietzsche would be diagnosed with a serious mental illness that would make him bed-ridden and speechless for the next eleven years until his death.
But whatever did happen to the horse? This film, which is Tarr's last, follows up this question in a fictionalized story of what occurred. The man who whipped the horse is a rural farmer who makes his living taking on carting jobs into the city with his horse-drawn cart. The horse is old and in very poor health, but does its best to obey its master's commands.
The farmer and his daughter must come to the understanding that it will be unable to go on sustaining their livelihoods. The dying of the horse is the foundation of this tragic tale.
Talking points
- the human condition and nature
- the role of suffering in life
- the futility of existence
- the relationship between humans and animals
