Start the week with a film: ‘The Mustang’ is a moving portrayal of redemption and freedom

The Mustang isn’t the first movie about a hardened prisoner’s redemption, nor is it unique in its exploration of the therapeutic role played by animals. French director Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre’s 2019 film distinguishes itself through its nuanced storytelling, the way in which actors are handled and its understanding of prison life.

The English-language film is based on an actual rehabilitation programme in which prisoners train wild mustang horses so that they can be auctioned. The end credits of The Mustang show prisoners with the marvellous beasts they have tamed and befriended.

Matthias Schoenaerts plays Roman, a taciturn inmate of a prison in Nevada. Scarred by the crime for which he has been jailed, Roman prefers solitude to human company. He’s a difficult man to be around, which perhaps makes him the perfect match for Marquis, a difficult mustang that refused to be broken.

Roman’s repeated efforts to communicate with Marquis are complicated by his uncontrollable rage as well as Marquis’s headstrong nature. The building of a relationship between man and horse takes place alongside Roman’s attempt to reconnect with his estranged daughter Martha (Gideon Adlon).

The Mustang is available on JioHotstar. The 2019 production acts as a companion piece to Chloe Zhao’s The Rider (2017) in its understated, visually striking examination of the unspoken bond...

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