Short film · 17 min
The Cavalry
A hybrid documentary on the involuntary role of animals in human conflict, following the training of the Israeli Police Cavalry Unit's horses in 2023 — "a subtly layered, provocative meditation on obedience and subjugation."
The Cavalry is a hybrid documentary on the involuntary role of animals in human conflict. Setting out in 2023 to film the public protests against the Israeli government, Alina Orlov was given access to a closed section of the Israeli Police — its cavalry unit — where Friesian horses imported from the Netherlands are trained for crowd control.
Filmed from January to September 2023 in Israel and the West Bank, the film moves between horses in a rural setting, the West Bank, the police training grounds and manipulated archival footage. It follows the desensitization of a young horse known only as Number Seven — loud noises, abrasion, water — and traces a transformation from sensitive, singular beings into amalgamations: in MoMA's words, "a subtly layered, provocative meditation on obedience and subjugation."
I produced the film with Alina and composed its sound and original score.
At MoMA's Doc Fortnight 2025 the film screened in Abstraction as Apprehension, a programme on the many forms protest and resistance can take, alongside films by Amy Sillman, Elisabeth Subrin, Antoine Chapon, Arshia Shakiba and Helin Çelik. In 2025 it was acquired by Duke University Libraries.
Festival bookings, press and screening enquiries: thecavalryfilm.com.