"East Wind: Departure for Ora": Not even worth seeing on World Horse Day
20.8.2017
Translation: machine translated
20 August is World Horse Day. To celebrate this, I couldn't think of anything better than going to the cinema to watch "Ostwind: Aufbruch nach Ora". I've already seen a few illogical films, but this pony film tops them all!
For this unparalleled cinema experience, I received emotional support from my work colleague Dominik Bärlocher. He is a horse film connoisseur par excellence. Unlike me, he knows the first two parts of Ostwind because he has them on DVD at home and has even read the books! He was able to provide me with important information about the prequel. Without his input, I would have understood the film even less. The last screening that day was at 16:10. That says everything about the target audience. I'm certainly not one of them. The following contains spoilers. But believe me, you'll thank me for it. ;)
At the beginning of this German blockbuster, we see a dream sequence of the main character Mika Schwarz (Hanna Binke). It shows a herd of wild horses jumping around a field as if stung by a tarantula. As they do so, they draw a crop circle in the ground with their hooves. This crop circle symbol keeps haunting Mika in her dreams. After a few days, she discovers this very symbol as a brand on her horse called Ostwind. After searching through several books on branding from all over the world, Mika finally finds the solution. Her horse comes from Spain.
I had to laugh out loud in the cinema at this point. I mean, how stupid must she be? She's owned this horse for about three years, grooms it twice a day and only now discovers this brand? In the book, she calls the complex symbol a hair whirl. I couldn't really digest this illogicality before it moved on to the next piece of madness.
The journey
In the middle of the night, Mika decides to travel to Spain with Ostwind. She saddles up the horse, packs a few things and is ready to set off. Then, out of the blue, her quasi-boyfriend Milan (Jannis Niewöhner) turns up and tells her that he will accompany her for a bit. They are already in the car together. He drives, she sleeps, the horse in the trailer. The illogicality hits me hard. They set off in the middle of the night from Kassel, Germany. The next morning they have already arrived in the south by the sea. In the film, it's not entirely clear where they are. The book of the same name says that they travelled as far as Genoa. That's 950 kilometres! Let's say they set off at midnight and arrived in Genoa at sunrise at 6am. That would mean that they travelled at an average speed of 160 km/h. I think that's totally irresponsible and dangerous, as they were only allowed to drive at 80 km/h with their horse trailer.
After this speeding offence, Mika changes her mode of transport and is now alone with her horse on a fishing boat. There is no sign of a captain. Either she is travelling alone, or director Katja von Garnier has decided not to cast her in this role. In any case, Mika simply stands on the deck of the ship with an easterly wind and chugs along from Genoa to Cadiz in Spain. Cadiz is in Andalusia. At the very bottom end of Spain near Gibraltar. This crossing would normally take several days. However, the two make it in just a few hours in absolutely calm seas.
But the journey doesn't end here. After all, she is on a quest for Ora. That's where the mark branded on the Ostwind's arse comes from. Mika covers the remaining kilometres on horseback. In the sweltering heat, she trots haphazardly through the roads and fields of southern Spain with Ostwind. She has no food or drink with her. Nobody needs them at 40 degrees in the shade.
I have to get something off my chest here. In my opinion, the film has a very bad influence on all the little horse-loving girls and boys who watch it. Mika constantly rides without protective gear. She never wears back armour, let alone a helmet. Totally irresponsible!
Ora
In a horse stud in the middle of nowhere in Andalusia, she discovers the brand on a horse trailer. She has reached her destination. The horse farm owner Pedro (Thomas Sarbacher) and his daughter Samantha (Lea van Acken) happen to speak fluent German. This is an advantage as Mika can't speak a word of Spanish. Somehow they don't question who Mika actually is and why she came to them from Germany with her horse. This is simply taken for granted. There's not much questioning in this film in general. It's just like that and that's it.
When Mika helps to repair a fence, she finds a spring by chance (somehow everything always happens by chance here). The spring of Ora! She goes into the water with Ostwind and swims around for a while until Samantha joins her. After their bath, the situation escalates abruptly and the plot of the film goes in a completely confused direction. Suddenly a crazy woman appears with a gun and tries to drive her away from the spring. It turns out that this is Samantha's aunt. Tara (Nicolette Krebitz) is the good woman's name and she has been living in a dilapidated ruin with wild horses for several decades. She possesses some kind of superhuman powers that allow her to communicate with the horses solely through her thoughts. She can summon a whole herd of wild horses with a single whistle and lift of her arms, who somehow happen to be waiting behind the next hedge to whistle and lift their arms. I completely lost touch with reality during this scene. From here on, everything became even more illogical than it already was.
To add a villain to the story, a large food company suddenly appears. It wants to destroy Ora's spring and build a water bottling plant on it. To prevent this, Mika and her new best friends want to revive an old tradition and organise the Ora race. This race has not been held for 30 years. If they manage to bring 200 people to the race, the spring will be placed under cultural protection and the food manufacturer will not be allowed to build its factory.
Of course, they manage to organise the race at the last minute and the spring is saved. Ostwind also takes part in the race and of course wins the whole thing. However, not with Mika as his rider, but alone. He overtakes all the other riders with their horses and crosses the finish line as the winner. According to legend, the horse that wins the Ora race is the soul of Andalusia. Yeah no, that's for sure.
For Mika, the work in Spain is done. She has fulfilled her "mission" and wants to return to Germany. Ostwind, on the other hand, has returned home to his family. Mika tearfully realises that she has to release him and travel home without her horse. She takes one last ride on Ostwind into the wilderness and lets him go his own way with a herd of wild horses.
Who does that? Her grandmother bought the stallion for tens of thousands of euros and she simply sets him free. Completely insane. Of course she can't drag her saddle back on foot after releasing Ostwind. So she simply leaves it in the meadow and runs away. After all, it's only a few thousand euros. After all, she didn't pay for it.
Conclusion
The film "Ostwind: Aufbruch nach Ora" offers the viewer beautiful shots of the nature of southern Spain paired with a completely illogical plot. The film creates the illusion of an unreal life in which everything works out without a hitch. Nevertheless, the film amused me in a strange way. I could hardly stop myself from laughing at a few points and was able to completely escape reality for two hours. Nevertheless, I have to tell you that you're doing yourself a favour if you don't go and see the film - not even on World Horse Day.
The first two films are certainly on the same level
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Riding my motorbike makes me feel free, fishing brings out my inner hunter, using my camera gets me creative. I make my money messing around with toys all day.
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