
North American Premiere
Subjected to loud noises, violent abrasions, water dousing, and unpredictable conditions, the horses of an Israeli police unit face harsh conditioning in the West Bank. With a semi-documentary approach, including the use of treated archival footage, newcomer Alina Orlov visualizes the desensitization process used for controlling these majestic animals, begging questions of how and why certain tactics are enacted and enforced beyond training.
Community Partner
Canada/USA/Israel
2024
In Hebrew with English subtitles
Animal cruelty
Indigenous & Community Access
Indigenous Access Tickets Community Access Tickets Ticket Donation Requests
Credits & Director
Cinematography
Alina Orlov
Editor
Alina Orlov
ANIM
Alina Orlov
Music
Patrick O’Shea

Alina Orlov
Alina Orlov, born in 1990, is an artist and filmmaker. She earned her MFA from the school of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2020 and a BFA with honors from Bezalel Academy in 2015. Her Work has been showcased internationally, including at the Locarno Film Festival, Galerie Historischer Keller in Berlin and YARAT in Baku. The Cavalry (2024) is her first film.
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
Fairy Creek
Considered the largest act of civil disobedience in Canadian history, the Fairy Creek blockade led to more than 1200 arrests. What Jen Muranetz's film gives us is the story from the front line from the activists' point of view (often, from the treetops).
Super Happy Forever
This beguiling film depicts a man’s return to the Japanese seaside town where he met his now-deceased wife five years earlier. He tries to relive the past, and in the film's final section -- a flashback to 2018 -- the audience is afforded that privilege.
Inedia
Liz Cairns makes a mesmerizing feature debut that sees a young woman suffering from mysterious food allergies join a remote island community practicing alternative healing methods. She soon realizes that not everything is as it seems.
Drop Dead City
New York, 1975. The city is minutes away from bankruptcy and President Gerald Ford wants no part of it. Sanitation workers are on strike and cops are telling tourists it's not safe to visit. The town is going up in flames and they can't pay the firemen.
Boxcutter
The first feature from former Toronto Flow OTA Live host and producer Reza Dahya is a boisterous, sometimes bruising day-in-the-life of wannabe rapper Rome (Ashton James), set on meeting megastar Richie Hill (Rich Kidd).