'' Western '' is a 2017 internationally co-produced drama film written , produced , and directed by Valeska Grisebach . It was screened in the '' Un Certain Regard '' section at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival . The film has been well received by critics . The film stars Meinhard Neumann in his first acting role as a German construction worker in Bulgaria who finds himself in the middle of a culture clash with the locals . Meinhard is part of a group of German construction workers hired to build a hydroelectric plant in a remote Bulgarian village near the Grecian border . As the construction crew does not have access to water to mix the cement their work comes to a halt leading them to boredom . While sunning in a nearby river they meet some local women out bathing and the encounter quickly becomes violent when one of the Bulgarian women loses her sun hat and the German worker who retrieves it refuses to give it back and tries to push her under water . Meinhard meanwhile finds a white horse . He brings it into the village and tries to talk to the locals , their interactions limited because of the lack of a common language . The horse belongs to a local man , Adrian , who allows Meinhard to ride the horse and Meinhard ends up befriending Adrian and his family , cobbling together bits of conversation . Meinhard also discovers that the lack of water is due to the local water being split three ways between villages . The locals explain that they can not give the Germans the water necessary for their work or they themselves will be without water . The foreman , Vincent , eventually takes Meinhard 's horse and goes to the water well , turning off the local Bulgarian water . In the process he fatally injures Meinhard 's horse , something Meinhard later finds out when he finds the dying horse and kills him as he can not survive
2017 Cannes Film Festival
2017 Cannes Film Festival
Western (2017 film)