A Horse in the Bed (Belgium) by Kris De Meester
NEWCINEMA/PICKS+
•
4m 33s
The Horse in the Bed is a darkly comic animated fable about Arthur, a quiet, conflict-averse man who wakes one morning to discover a full-sized horse sleeping beside him.
Rather than confront the impossible situation, Arthur chooses politeness. He asks the horse to move. It does not. He makes another breakfast when the horse eats his. He waits patiently while it occupies the bathroom. When the horse follows him to work, Arthur allows that too.
What begins as a minor absurdity gradually becomes an occupation. The horse earns the affection of Arthur’s colleagues, the approval of his boss, and eventually the attention of his wife. Each time another piece of Arthur’s life is taken from him, he convinces himself that objecting would create more trouble than simply adapting.
Before long, the horse has taken his chair, his position at work, his place in the family portrait—and finally his bed and his home.
Arthur ends up sleeping in the stable outside, still unable to say what should have been obvious from the beginning.
The Horse in the Bed is an absurdist story about boundaries, avoidance, and the quiet ways in which small problems become enormous when we refuse to confront them.
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