• Home
  • About Us
  • Submit Article
  • Contact Us
Indie Shorts Mag
  • Home
  • Interviews
  • News
    • Film Festival News
    • Short Film News
  • Reviews
    • Short Film
    • Documentary
    • Web Series
  • Hall of Fame
  • Short Film Festival – 2022Earlybird Deadline
  • Tutorials
    • Pre-Production
    • Post-Production
  • Short Film TVLive
  • Submit Short Film
    • Submit Short Film for Review
    • Submit Web Series for Review
No Result
View All Result
Indie Shorts Mag
  • Home
  • Interviews
  • News
    • Film Festival News
    • Short Film News
  • Reviews
    • Short Film
    • Documentary
    • Web Series
  • Hall of Fame
  • Short Film Festival – 2022Earlybird Deadline
  • Tutorials
    • Pre-Production
    • Post-Production
  • Short Film TVLive
  • Submit Short Film
    • Submit Short Film for Review
    • Submit Web Series for Review
No Result
View All Result
Indie Shorts Mag
No Result
View All Result

White Horses, Silver Mine: A Tale Of Unfulfilled Love Set Against Sweeping Visuals

Indie Shorts Mag Team by Indie Shorts Mag Team
09 Oct 2020
in Reviews
0
White Horses, Silver Mine - Short Film Review - Indie Shorts Mag

Writers Jun Tang and Ziyi Jin follow a nuanced story, of a sexagenarian and his lover, a forbidden love that can’t find its safe haven in an unforgiving world. When juxtaposed with the raw scenery of a Mexican hamlet, what White Horses, Silver Mine becomes is a meditative piece; poetic and lingering in its effect. 

Juan is a mine owner. His weather-beaten face has seen many summers. A man of few words, hardened by fate, Juan — played by Juan de la Loza — is the 60-something homosexual whose backstory we don’t know about, making it even harder to relate to an already phlegmatic character. It’s in the restraint Loza exercises that his performance shines through. When his agitated workers begin to protest against the  unyielding mine, hunger, poverty and civil disorders descend. Amongst them is Sebastian, singled out.

White Horses, Silver Mine - Short Film Review - Indie Shorts Mag

What director Ziyi Jin does is essentially a somersault to the conventional representation. Mexican people are famed for their very expressive conduct. Loud in life, celebratory in death. White Horses, Silver Mine, is quite simply put, the opposite. Subdued in life, deathly calm in picturisation. Even the music (composition by Cali Wang, guitar performed by Peter Lam) is so pointedly used at intermediate moments that it becomes a welcome relief — relief to breathe, relief to despair, relief to mourn the loss of love, hope and life.

Sebastian and Juan’s love is repressed, for it is born in the bosom of a traditional and conservative society. Their intimate moments are neither shown, nor spoken about, but simply felt in Vincente Ferri’s muted breakdown as Sebastian. His back turned to the camera, we see the grieving man, his love unfinished. To counter it is Juan, whose almost archaic hold over himself finds no release. To balance the characters, comes into the play the most well-written part — that of Alex, Juan’s son. Little Brayan Jaramillo Martínez, who plays Alex, is the voice of the film, and perhaps the only voice.

White Horses, Silver Mine - Short Film Review - Indie Shorts Mag

In the boy, we see what is painfully lacking in the adults — the freedom to express their love, hurt and anger. Alex, who shares a particularly warm relationship with Sebastian, senses it all and is yet clueless of what the dynamics are between the adults, but is nevertheless torn by its consequence. Yiqing Yu, whose editing made Under The Flag temporal, brings disquiet to the 14:48 minutes of White Horses, Silver Mine. That, along with the brilliantly enabled cinematography of Xun He, gives the audience languid shots of the unforgiving Mexican landscape; a beautiful choice considering how parallel the story runs to this setting.

It’s in Jin’s delicate approach to the story that the film’s success lies. In leaving it to the audience to feel the restrictions and unfulfillment of a treasured love, the men become both, the prisoners of their own choices and victims to their circumstances, and as Alex, we too are simply left despairing.

MWnIGsE - Indie Shorts Mag
ADVERTISEMENT

The tastefully chosen metaphors of white horses and silver mine resonate with the characters and their story. Martínez, who as Alex, is simply brilliant, offers the narrative its closure, just as he opens it, even as we are left seeking for one.

White Horses, Silver Mine is soulful and bare and in the gentle exploration of homosexuality, traditions and class divide against a beautifully told love story, what Jin has offered is a poignant short.

#ShortFilmReview: White Horses, Silver Mine: Here, love doesn't conquer all. Click To Tweet
White Horses, Silver Mine: A Tale Of Unfulfilled Love Set Against Sweeping Visuals
  • Direction
  • Cinematography
  • Screenplay
  • Editing
  • Music
4.8
Tags: PrivateReviewShort Film Reviews
Previous Post

The Journeyman: Heartbreakingly Beautiful, Painfully Real

Next Post

Dope Sick: Grim Reality Of Addiction Exposed

Indie Shorts Mag Team

Indie Shorts Mag Team

Related Posts

Mara - The Seal Wife - Short Film Review - Indie Shorts Mag
Reviews

Mara: A Spin On The Selkie Folklore

4th July 2022
Monkey Enters Lanka - Short Film Review - Indie Shorts Mag
Reviews

Monkey Enters Lanka: A Fable Told Through The Blending Of Elements

1st July 2022
Next Post
Dope Sick - Short Film Review - Indie Shorts Mag

Dope Sick: Grim Reality Of Addiction Exposed

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Featured Post

Announcing Indie Shorts Mag Short Film Festival(ISMSFF) 2022

Announcing Indie Shorts Mag Short Film Festival(ISMSFF) 2022

Sponsored

  • Recent Reviews
Facebook Twitter Instagram Pinterest Youtube Vimeo

About Indie Shorts Mag

Indie Shorts Mag is a publishing agency that works within the ‘short film circuit’. We review short films, documentaries, music videos and web series, amongst others. We stand out amongst the short film review sites for being multi-diverse & global in our platform and reach.
Our team works tirelessly to help promote, publicize and market your short films that deserve the shout-out! Besides reviews, we host film festival news as it’s a known fact that the film festival buzz is unmissable and we ensure you aren’t left behind!
We aspire to form a niche for ourselves as the ‘short film magazine’ that remains the hub for filmmakers & their audience.

Popular Topics

  • Announcements
  • Articles
  • Crowdfunding
  • Editorial
  • Film Festival News
  • Film Festivals
  • India Edition
  • Interviews
  • Marketing
  • Marketing
  • News
  • Online Premiere
  • Post-Production
  • Pre-Production
  • Reviews
  • Short Film
  • Short Film Competition
  • Short Film News
  • Tutorials
  • Web Series

Indie Shorts Mag on Instagram

Follow Us On Instagram

  • #ShortFilmTrailer: On The Whistle: You earn your privileges here.

Read our review & watch the short, link in bio. 
 

#ShortFilm #SupportIndieFilm #Trailer #ShortFilms
  • #ShortFilmReview: One More Bite: Some exits have to be clawed into existence. Read our review. Link in bio.

#ShortFilm #Review #IndieFilmReview #FilmReview #SupportIndieFilm
  • #ShortFilmReview: Perfect: The perfect partner is just a mail order away! Read our review. Link in bio.

#ShortFilm #Review #IndieFilmReview #FilmReview #SupportIndieFilm
  • #ShortFilmReview: Santi: Home is somewhere. Read our review. Link in bio.

#ShortFilm #Review #IndieFilmReview #FilmReview #SupportIndieFilm
  • #ShortFilmReview: The Atomic Spawn: Nuclear test results are coming home to roost. Read our review. Link in bio.

#ShortFilm #Review #IndieFilmReview #FilmReview #SupportIndieFilm
  • #ShortFilmReview: Allende: Shame is a deadly thing. Read our review. Link in bio.

#ShortFilm #Review #IndieFilmReview #FilmReview #SpportIndieFilm
  • #ShortFilmReview: Sharing: It is a bittersweet thing. Read our review. Link in bio.

#ShortFilm #Review #IndieFilmReview #FilmReview #SupportIndieFilm
  • #ShortFilmReview: The Code Of Family: Age is the number of years of experience. Read our review. Link in bio.

#ShortFilm #Review #IndieFilmReview #FilmReview #SupportIndieFilm
  • #ShortFilmReview: A Tale Of Tragedy: Belief kept her going. Read our review. Link in bio.

#ShortFilm #Review #IndieFilmReview #FilmReview #SupportIndieFilm

© 2015-2022 Indie Shorts Mag.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Interviews
  • News
    • Film Festival News
    • Short Film News
  • Reviews
    • Short Film
    • Documentary
    • Web Series
  • Hall of Fame
  • Short Film Festival – 2022
  • Tutorials
    • Pre-Production
    • Post-Production
  • Short Film TV
  • Submit Short Film
    • Submit Short Film for Review
    • Submit Web Series for Review

© 2015-2022 Indie Shorts Mag.