Then I Saw a Beautiful Horse begins with a legal contradiction. Until as recently as 2013, German law permitted bestiality—sex with animals—under a framework that treated the act as seperate from intent and invoked the possibility of “animal consent”. Meanwhile, the killing of animals for consumption remained socially unquestioned.
Starting from that tension, this tightly edited video essay spirals outward through a rapid chain of associations, from the German penal code and the meat industry to BDSM, cinema, and more. At its centre is a filmmaker who, while researching Germany’s former zoophilia laws, is accused of being a cybercriminal. What begins as an eccentric legal investigation gradually becomes a piercing examination of how those in power construct and reshape language to legitimise violence.
Stills
