Alpha mare

10 MINUTES

After a mental health crisis, Karin finds peace among her beloved horses

As a child in Denmark, Karin Dilou was uncomfortable in her own skin – especially around her parents, who wanted a boy and were deeply disappointed she was born a girl. She later moved to California, determined to pursue a peaceful life in the countryside, far from other people. But, living with undiagnosed bipolar disorder, she suffered a painful break from reality, and found herself taken away in handcuffs and locked up. ‘I was half dead,’ she says of the devastating experience. ‘I’d rather die than anybody should lock me up again.’

The short documentary Alpha Mare by the US directors Mimi Wilcox and Victor Tadashi Suarez pays a visit to Dilou’s home in Nicasio, California, where she lives with her beloved herd of Danish Warmbloods. Sweeping shots capture the grandeur of the scenic landscape, with Dilou recalling how she came to find herself and regain her footing through her relationship with these animals. Among horses, an alpha mare is a herd’s strong female leader. To establish herself in that role at the top of the hierarchy, Dilou has had to act as a wise and decisive leader to earn their trust. She’s charted this path through insights and empathy gained during her time locked away. ‘They are flight animals. They’re terrified of being locked up,’ she says. ‘I’ve been there myself.’ In return, the horses provide her a confidence, camaraderie and stability that has eluded Dilou throughout much of her life.

Although a sparse and subtle production, Alpha Mare deftly moves between a wide array of themes across its 10 minutes. On the surface, there’s society’s often inhumane treatment of those living with a mental illness, which can exacerbate and prolong suffering. Another theme is home, which Dilou finds a continent away from where she was born – although with the animals she fell in love with in her youth, and with a nod to her birth country in the name of her beautiful estate, Danehill Manor. Weaving through it all is the search for peace with one’s place in the world and, through that, with oneself. And, as the directors’ rendering of Dilou’s story illustrates with cinematic grace, it’s a journey that can take many winding paths.

Written by Adam D’Arpino

Explore more

Oil painting diptych of a man rowing a boat and a woman in blue with a green background.
LOVE

Two lives drift apart and come together in a love story told one brush stroke at a time

Directed by Ian Bruce

Illustration of a woman floating in space surrounded by large hands and small stars on a dark background.

The psychic who healed me

It was just like her – my bold, dead mother – to show up in my life again. Or was grief playing tricks on me?

by Amanda Leigh Lichtenstein

A man looking through the scope of a rifle in a crowded exhibition with mounted deer heads in the background.

My husband, the gun nut

Three years into a blissful relationship, my partner picked up a hobby that sent me spiralling

by Lindsey Harrington

Black and white close-up photo of a person’s arm showing skin texture and pigment and shadows; protruding ribs are visible behind the arm.

A ghost in limbo

Two decades of anorexia obscured who I was beneath my sickness. Then a stranger saw me

by Miranda Gold

A woman with a headset giving a presentation. She gestures with her hand. The background is wood paneling.

Why the mental health awareness movement needs more precision and fewer vibes

Video by the Royal Institution

Illustration of two people standing in a forest, at the top of a waterfall, with a dog below; money is washing away down the waterfall into a pond, as well as a car and house pictured in the pond below.

Money

When an investment tanked and buried us in debt, we had to face the truth of how we’d gotten there

by Carol Berkower

A white wolf standing on a rocky surface with a grassy background, tongue out, looking forward.

Alone with a she-wolf

Time slowed and adrenaline kicked in. The creature studied me, just another element in nature

by Melanie McGrath

Photo of a person holding a tortoise above a container with leaves against a tiled wall.
Psyche Exclusive

High in the Alps, Kathleen takes extraordinary steps to keep a pet safe through the winter

Directed by G Anthony Svatek