A lonely expat sets out on the voyage of a lifetime in Lucy D’Cruz’s hypnotic horse riding documentary. Here’s our The Long Quiet review.
In the opening lines of The Long Quiet, Lucy D’Cruz’s documentary of Hugh MacDermott’s horseback odyssey across Argentina, a friend of Hugh’s refuses to describe the subject as a horse whisperer. The assertion would have more weight if we hadn’t just seen him stood on top of one. When we see childhood photographs of Hugh lying on his back, reading books from his equine perch, or watch him ride, naked and saddle-less, across the Argentinian foothills, it’s hard to imagine who else the term could have been coined for.
The Long Quiet is a character study of a man described early on as “one of life’s great characters”. Again, it would be a cliché if it weren’t so apt. What else would you call an Irishman who, in 2004 and aged just 19, flew to Buenos Ares on a whim and set out to ride from Argentina to New York based on a 1933 travel diary?
D’Cruz, MacDermott, and Hugh’s faithful steed, Pancho, set out to recreate the final leg of this mammoth quest, their reminiscences interspersed with talking head interviews and the yellowing pages of the book that started it all: A. F. Tschiffely’s Tschiffely’s Ride. As we learn more about Hugh’s childhood – combining material privilege with deep personal tragedy – it’s tempting to imagine his (very literal) journey of self-discovery will unfold as a simple trek from A to B.
But one of the real triumphs of The Long Quiet is its willingness to diverge from the well-worn path. What could have been a more traditional story of a man coming to terms with his sexuality, family tragedy or absent father combines all the above and more into something a little messier. His journey might end with some kind of spiritual awakening, but plenty of his physical and emotional barriers remain.
It helps that Hugh makes for such a charismatic subject. Effortlessly chatty and easy-going with people and horses alike, it’s not difficult to see how he effectively charmed his way across the length of Argentina, but a combination of self-awareness and endearingly earnest delivery mean it’s hard for us not to fall in love with him, too. Framing his own story as just one amongst millions, it’s his presence that grants the film a kind of profound spirituality it’s difficult to shake even when its structure proves slightly difficult to follow – jumping between clifftops and Argentinian trails without making completely clear where this revisiting of old haunts fits into the narrative.
Closing with the same horseback-standing stunt as it started, The Long Quiet’s greatest trick is pulling us in with an extraordinary physical story and leaving us with a profoundly ordinary one. A tale of zen acceptance bound up in a once-in-a-generation feat, the result occasionally borders on the hypnotic – like a boy on his horse, treading down a dirt track, lulling each other into the dark.
The Long Quiet will be screened on Thursday, April 24th at 7pm at Thin Line Fest 2025.
