Clermont-Ferrand ISFF Review: Air Horse One (2025)
Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival
International Competition
More than half a decade since his EFA-winning short documentary All Cats Are Grey In The Dark (2019), director Lasse Linder returns with another sideways look at the lives of animals in Air Horse One. More grandiose in scope – with less of the human element that made his 2019 effort such a delight – Air Horse One initially seems to be an exercise in whimsical observation. But as the film goes on, it reveals subtle insight into both the desires – and sometimes excesses – of human behaviour.
Already screening at a number of domestic festivals – Locarno, Winterthur, and Zurich (where it won Best Short) – the film also screened at IDFA and is now part of the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival International Competition.
Legacy is an international show jumping sensation, trotting off (both figuratively and literally) to venues across the world in order to add more championship rosettes (and probably a healthy chunk of prize money) to her collection. But how to get there? As the title would suggest, we follow our neighing protagonist into the world of ‘Equine Air Travel’ in which stewards need to be more conversant with doling out hay than they need to be pouring out champagne.
On one level, the film offers an interesting insight into something most people probably knew but never thought about: that flights, especially for horses, do exist. For one moment, we’re taken inside the hold. Instead of seats, it’s lined with horseboxes. During take-off, their initial distress is slightly disturbing (exactly how do you explain air travel to a horse?), but the entire mechanics of the operation have a certain amount of intrigue.
But Linder also provides something quite meditative. From plane to paddock to stable, it’s a strangely hypnotic life with our equine heroine becaming a passive observer to everything that surrounds her. Certainly, while Legacy has plenty of human interaction, the humans are still bit players in this story, a snippet of dialogue here, a glimpse there. It’s noticeable that – apart from one slow-motion short of Legacy jumping a fence – Linder avoids the meat and potatoes of Legacy’s ‘job’ as a competition winner. This is all about the life outside, which is somewhat idyllic. As humans run around complaining about lost paperwork, Legacy munches hay waiting for a quick workout trot before setting off on the next flight, all needs taken care of and no surprises forthcoming.
Yet one also can’t help feel both the tinge of the absurd and sly comment on the excess of those who can afford such things. While it is never dwelt on, one can’t help but think of the absurd amounts of money that go into such endeavours. While this is far from a piece of political polemic, when the synopsis talks half-jokingly of the ‘…business class of equine air travel’ (bringing to mind that there are some economy horses who will have to pay for their hay on board and be unable to bring any saddles over 8kg) there are small reminders of over-consumption and what humans will do to indulge their passions if expense is no object.
Linder delivers a thoughtful, quietly engrossing documentary, with enough introspection to move beyond its whimsical origins.
Year: 2025
Runtime: 21’
Country: Switzerland / Belgium
Language: English
Directed by: Lasse Linder
Written by: Lasse Linder
Cast: Legacy
Cinematography by: Robin Angst
Editing by: Daniel Loepfe
Produced by: Philipp Ritler
Production company: Dynamic Frame
Co-Production Company: Black Boat & White Boat
Co-Producers: Valentin Leblanc & Delphine Duez
Distribution: Travelling Distribution
