Most times, if I’m assigned a short film, I receive a press kit related to it, containing a synopsis, the director’s statement, and other details. I only skim through it before watching, as I believe in an unfiltered experience when it comes to media content. But sometimes, the press kit comes in quite handy. Like this short film, The Cavalry, which premiered at the Locarno Film Festival. I would be at sea if I hadn’t known the backstory behind the film. Directed by Russian director Alina Orlov, The Cavalry is a semi-documentary short. The semi-documentary is an interesting format. Here the story is told following the documentary narrator style, but archival footage and some other things are contrived for convenience. It’s not quite a docu-drama (like Netflix’s Narcos), but also not a usual documentary. The Cavalry centers on horses, and it is largely contained in rural Israel. The term “cavalry” used to refer to soldiers who used to fight on horseback. Here, the interaction between horses and humans is shown, mostly in the form of how the horses are being trained for the cavalry units. However, it is not as simple as that. A lot is going on underneath, and the short serves as a reflection of Israeli society and the problematic aspect of it. In a way, it’s director Alina Orlov’s critique of the Israeli government and how they endorse animal cruelty.
That’s not all. Orlov clearly wants to point at the Israel-Palestine issue, as The Cavalry explicitly shows how Israel conjured up a fence separating its land from the West Bank, which is a Palestinian territory. There’s no narrator used, but the director lets us know through text written on the screen that the fence was erected when she was twelve. The press material has given us further clarifications that she moved to Israel from the Soviet Union with her family at the age of two. Her formative years were spent in the country, and she wanted to tell a story of how problematic the Israeli government was (and still is). Her tool here is animal welfare and the environment, which I find to be the most interesting aspect of The Cavalry. Orlov’s idea for the semi-doc originated from a protest against the Israeli government back in January 2023. She started wondering about the importance of horses and their involvement in government activities. Of course, filming The Cavalry did prove to be quite a challenge, as she had to go through a lot of struggles. In her own words, the police granted her permission to do her film, but without asking many questions. Understandably, The Cavalry barely had any dialogue. There’s no narrator either. Just the text plays like subtitles, which provides you enough information about the subject matter, enough to reach a conclusion on your own.
The short begins with scenes from a ranch, depicting the process of how the horses are maintained and trained. The Cavalry puts this particular horse, seven (7), at the forefront and shows what the horse has to go through in order to become adequate enough to join the cavalry. And it’s not good news for the male horse, as he has to go through so many uncomfortable situations where he is shot with water pipes, subjected to strange noises, and many unsuitable conditions that are bound to make the horse uncomfortable. This is a clear indication that animal cruelty is being indulged in, which should ideally be treated as grave crime. Going a little off track here, as I am writing this article, I am deeply bothered by the inhumanity a pregnant elephant was subjected to when she was set ablaze in West Bengal’s Jhargram by a bunch of villagers. Whether you’re an animal lover or not, such things are bound to affect you, and The Cavalry may appear to be subtle, but that doesn’t mean the horse is not in any pain. It is further clarified that male horses are chosen over female horses because of their obedience. Female horses are inherent leaders, and they’re marked as opinionated, meaning they can’t be trained for what’s essential in the cavalry. However, the male horses get scared easily, and the entire harsh treatment is done mainly because the agenda is to desensitize them and make them frontline-ready.
I have no doubt that Orlov’s idea here is novel and very relevant. This semi-documentary is clearly out there to make a political statement, and the choice of using horses as a front is quite unique. But does that automatically make The Cavalry a good short film? My honest answer would be a straight-up no. Despite its earnestness and the effort put into it by the director, the semi-documentary doesn’t quite work. And I am not just saying this from a technical standpoint. The way The Cavalry has used generative AI is a huge spot of bother, at least for me. For the uninitiated, this is a form of AI that creates images, text, and even videos based on already-provided data models. I am sure a whole lot of people have worked extremely hard to implement the AI-generated footage here, and I absolutely don’t intend to criticize their good intentions. However, the end result is still not convincing, and a lot of The Cavalry feels off due to these generated visuals. Also, director Alina Orlov’s conscious choice to tell this story without a proper narrator (and a narrative) is another reason The Cavalry suffers. This is a very important story that has a lot of political relevance. A bit of directness would have made the whole thing far more accessible. The overly “artsy” approach The Cavalry takes is not exactly suitable when you’re out to tell a story and also want to change the world through it. However, I will still conclude by saying this much: Alina Orlov’s attempt to do something like this is nothing short of remarkable. If only the execution was more convincing!
