Enacting the story of a hunt with wild but precise gestures, the Polish animator Witold Gierszâs The Horse (award-winning at the Krakow Film Festival for âits exceptionally interesting animation techniqueâ) explodes with color and brings to life the physical strokes of paint of which it is made. The film never lets you forget that what youâre seeing is simply paint being rearranged into recognizable shapes, yet the pumping musical score and expressiveness of its titular character provide a simultaneous emotional experience. The abstract backgrounds render the narrative world beautiful and strange yet entirely comprehensible, as the film depicts an epic chase from humanityâs past.
