Our theme for the month of October is “haunt.”
The world is ending. On the Hungarian plain, a man drives his horse and cart home to his daughter. They stable the horse and eat boiled potatoes with their fingers. The wind blows outside. They take turns sitting at their single window, staring out at the barren landscape beyond.
Thus begins The Turin Horse, a 2011 film by Hungarian director Béla Tarr. Tarr tells the story in 156 minutes and only 30 shots, resulting in a film equal parts boring and transfixing. Nothing happens, and viewers cannot look away. Over the course of six days, the father and daughter live their lives as best they can as the world ends around them. Some movies you watch over and over with friends to feel good. This is not one of those. You can watch The Turin Horse once and think about it for months after.
The wind blows outside. The next day the horse is uncooperative, thus the driver cannot go to work. They stay inside. A neighbor arrives, having run out of alcohol. They top him off from their supply, and he tells them the neighboring town is gone, having been blown away by the wind. He tells them the world has been desecrated by men and God, before departing back to his home. They eat potatoes and take turns at the window.
The wind blows outside. The next day a Romani family stops outside to use the well. The father drives them away, but not before one gives a book to the daughter. She spends the evening reading it, to her father’s chagrin. They eat boiled potatoes and take turns at the window.
The wind blows outside. The next day the driver and his daughter discover their well has dried up. They pack up their belongings to leave, though the horse will not pull the cart. They depart, but return shortly. The world beyond their hill is gone. They eat boiled potatoes and take turns at the window.
This is not a cheerful film, and the choice to shoot in black and white reflects that. This world is stark, using the encroach of darkness to make viewers feel the pressure the characters feel. This is not a world where color belongs. The wind sound effect is repetitive and loops, as does the one piece of musical scoring, making viewers feel a little insane, like the characters must be.
The wind blows outside. The next day the horse’s sickness has progressed, and they give up on trying to nurse it to health. Father and Daughter eat their potatoes raw, as there is no water to boil them in. As they eat, the light inside the house goes out and will not reignite.
The next day, there is no light, and no wind. They begin to eat their raw potatoes, but stop, accepting the end.
The title The Turin Horse title comes from an apocryphal story told in the prologue, concerning Friedrich Nietzsche’s mental break in 1889. Nietzsche supposedly witnessed the flogging of a horse and threw his arms around it to protect it. The film presents the horse and driver as the same ones from the story, nevermind that the city of Turin is in Italy and the film clearly takes place in Hungary. The connection to Nietzsche feels apt, as the film presents a nihilist view of the world. Because nothing matters, everything gets equal weight. Every mundane detail of putting on clothes and eating potatoes and saddling the horse is as important as another. Viewers create their own meaning by what they focus on. What they choose to have matter from the film is what matters. I didn’t enjoy watching this film, but I haven’t stopped thinking about it since I did, and that is an accomplishment that deserves to be celebrated.
Photo credit: screencap from The Turin Horse, produced by T. T. Filmműhely
