The feature documentary ‘Dark Horse: The Incredible True Story of Dream Alliance’ is showing at 1pm, and again at 6:10pm, this coming Monday, October 5th, in Filmhouse 2. ‘Dark Horse’ is yet another example of the work of cinematographer Benjamin Kracun. Benny graduated from the BA (Hons) Photography and Film Programme at Edinburgh Napier in 2004.
The film tells the true story of a champion racehorse, raised on an allotment in Cefn Forest, a former mining village in South Wales. In 2000, Jan Vokes, the barmaid at a local working men’s club, convinced a handful of locals to part with £10 a week, found a thoroughbred mare with a terrible racing record for £300, a stallion past his best, put them together and – against all the odds – bred a winner. The horse, ‘Dream Alliance’, went on win the Welsh Grand National and a career total of £137,000 in prize money.
‘’The Independent’ described the film as having ‘all the ingredients of the best sports movies: the usual interplay between triumph and disaster. What makes it distinctive, though, is its gallery of colourful characters – the bar workers, supermarket assistants, small businessmen and retirees who paid their weekly ‘tenner’ to get ‘Dream Alliance’ on the race course. They’re indomitable types with a self-mocking sense of humour.’