Cold and Dark

Zima a Tma

A group of loggers and their horse embark on a delirious journey to gather firewood deep in the Slovakian mountains.

Both fantastical and deeply grounded, Cold and Dark immerses you in the world and work of a group of loggers and their carthorse in a mountain village in Slovakia. With echoes of Béla Tarr, the film documents their heavy labour, drunken banter, the patient toil of Kubo the carthorse and the strange, dark atmosphere of the forest. In a country almost 100% reliant on imported natural gas from Russia, this eerie film captures an ancient sustainable practice that also points to local forms of survival in the face of mounting global crises.

Content Guidance: contains offensive language and gory injury detail.

This film will screen as part of the programme Shorts: Working Machine Blues.