A horse breeder raises an army to avenge an offense made against him.

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Horse breeder Mickael Kohlhass (Mads Mikkelsen) is appreciated by all for his great respect for the animals he raises on his farm in the Cévennes mountains. On the way to a market Kohlhass attends each year, a lord demands payment for the right of passage of his lands, which until now had always been free. Kohlhass leaves two horses and one of his grooms. Upon his return, he finds his horses in terrible condition – wounded, malnourished and left in the pig pen. His employee has disappeared, but Kohlhass won’t believe he would betray him. When the man returns, covered with scars from a dog attack, Kohlhass decides to raise an army and risk everything to get revenge on the evil lord.

An adaptation of Heinrich von Kleist’s novel of the same name, directed by Arnaud des Pallières, this search for justice at any price turns into an interminable war in which it’s hard to see clearly. Attacks at nightfall make it hard to see who’s losing or winning, as the fastidious horseman digs himself into a moral stalemate and the local princess does an odd about-face. All of which makes this gruesome tale a veritable torment shot in a grandiloquent but monochrome setting, from which the only escape is boredom.