Hordur - film review

After being bullied mercilessly by her classmates, Aylin (Almila Bagriacik) a 17-year-old Muslim girl of Turkish descent gets into trouble with the law and  is sentenced to community service at an out-of-town horse stable. Things don't immediately go well as the owner of the stables is too distracted by her own disintegrating homelife to want to offer support and training to a troubled treenager. However Aylin soon discovers a bond with the spirited and beautiful Icelandic horse Hördur and a talent as a horserider. 

Can she persuade the stable owner to let her enter a riding competition and can she persuade her father that horseriding is a worthwhile pursuit? 

Aylin's daily struggles at the stables, at school and at home (where she looks after her younger brother while her widowed father works all hours in low paid labouring jobs) are intercut with beautiful etehreal dream sequences where she rides a horse through a mystical woodland.

This is a wonderful coming of age film that offers insight into the difficult lives experienced by many migrant workers and the transformations that relationships with animals can make.

Hordur had one screening today as part of the Fokus season of German films at Edinburgh Filmhouse.