Gone Wild, 2012.
Directed by Dan Curean.
SYNOPSIS:
A documentary chronicling a herd of wild horses on the Danube Delta.
Gone Wild narrowly misses out on full marks due to its last moments spent on making protest noise, but the rest of the doc has beauty and quiet insight reminiscent of Terrence Malick. No documentary should ever be just about one thing, and so Gone Wild isn’t just a doc about horses.
The study of one crumbling village on the Danube Delta, post-communism, and man’s relationship with nature there, the Romanian-language doc depicts the former farm horses of Iron Curtain Romania taken back to the wild. They’ve flourished there, where the people of Letea are becoming a rare species. Still, the growing number of wild horses threatens the humans and their habitat. Guess which will have to go.
Brutal and beautiful in equal measure, director Dan Curean captures some indelible imagery: a wild horse bucking with fury as it’s penned into inevitable domesticity; a huge red sun setting against Letea’s wild grass; a young boy, an innocent amongst alcoholics and opportunists, whispering a newly-captured beast into calm. Curean’s feelings on the battle between nature and humanity is clear; a soft voiceover (used sparingly, the film showing and not telling the story) explains how inspiring it is to see wild animals flourishing in a world where they’re dying out.
It’s hard not to agree when the human population here is so ruinous, while the surrounding land and wildlife in it is so serene. If not backed by a constant, gentle birdsong, much of Gone Wild could be a silent movie. It prides itself on moments of wordless beauty, like the numerous, breathtaking shots of the “Mustang” horses running in pack through the wilderness.
Of all the docs at Bradford about towns in ruin, Gone Wild captures the desperation most effectively. Letea is a near ghost-town of rust and ruin, where the local “witch” is an old spinster pining for her runaway husband after decades alone. It’s smaller stories making commentary in microcosm, and not the last act preaching about animal welfare, that makes Gone Wild so riveting.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★
Brogan Morris – Lover of film, writer of words, pretentious beyond belief. Thinks Scorsese and Kubrick are the kings of cinema, but PT Anderson and David Fincher are the young princes. Follow Brogan on Twitter if you can take shameless self-promotion.
Originally published April 24, 2013. Updated April 11, 2018.
