Mister V 2003

From the opening moments, as Mister V, an uncontrollable black stallion, is exhibited to a crowd of champagne-sipping buyers, director Emilie Deleuze plunges us into the French horse-racing world. Her probing account of her protagonist’s compulsion not so much to master the beast, as to level with it, is a stimulating, strikingly individual work that has the bracing impact of a physical confrontation. — BG

“Mathieu Demy is extraordinarily effective as a scientist at first disapproving of his stable-owner brother’s purchase of a wild stallion as part of an insurance scam… When the magnificent but obstinate beast proves even more violent than feared, Demy determines to take control of the situation himself, and embarks on a dark voyage of discovery as dangerous as it is exhilarating. None too concerned with the crime-thriller trappings of her story, Deleuze focuses on the almost erotically intense encounter of man and horse... Suspenseful, psychologically and philosophically subtle, bold and very beautiful in its imagery.” — Geoff Andrew, Time Out