In cinemas this week: The Mustang sees graffiti artist take the reins in off-the-wall tale

It promises to be one of the year’s more unusual stories, and has one of cinema’s more unusual stars.

The Mustang tells the tale of an incarcerated convict who takes part in an unlikely rehabilitation programme.

It is centred on training horses, and the surprise is that it’s all based on fact.

Carson City, Nevada, has seen just such a programme, and it works.

Matthias Schoenaerts is its Belgian-born leading man, better known to some as Zenith, a graffiti artist whose YouTube videos often attract many tens of thousands of fans.

His acting is not bad either, and this type of slightly off-the-wall movie is just his kind of thing.

Schoenaerts plays Roman Coleman, locked up for 12 years after attacking his partner and leaving her brain-damaged permanently.

Aware himself that he is always on the verge of exploding into rage and violence, he resists any attempt to integrate him back into society.

Myles, a rancher, runs the horse-training programme, in which they have to master wild mustangs and get them integrated into society, too, so to speak.

Each convict has a specific horse and have to get the job done within five weeks, at which point the mustangs will be sold in an auction.

Schoenaerts gets plenty of support from Bruce Dern, 83-year-old veteran of 60 years of movies, who is also making headlines at the moment in Once Upon A Time In Hollywood and has four films out this year.

Dern plays Myles, who is also in charge of Henry, seen as the best horse trainer of the lot, and Roman bonds with him while learning how to train the horses.

Roman also bonds with Marquis, his horse, and the animal and human develop a special relationship before the whole programme is shattered when Henry is murdered by Dan, cellmate of Roman, who promptly strangles him.

Thankfully, the guards break it up before he can kill him, but the eventual auction goes badly when Marquis is scared by a helicopter overhead.

The story also brings in Roman’s pregnant daughter, who is keen to bring her baby to see him in prison, even if he seems intent on never getting out of his cell again.

If you’ve never heard of the main man, who has won multiple awards and been in all sorts of movies, you won’t forget him after this one!

In a very demanding job, he puts in a masterful performance, and he loves such characters.

“I like underdogs, anti-heroes, people who have a hard time overcoming things in life,” he admits, and this role certainly ticks all those boxes.

“We all get damned in our lives and there are ripple effects. One thing can determine a life and it’s hard to overcome that if the event is really traumatic. Your life is really condemned by it.”

Born in Antwerp, Flanders, he grew up fluent in Flemish and French and added English by watching lots of American films.

He was just nine when he appeared in a theatre production with his actor father and costume designer mother, and he was still in his teens when he started his highly-regarded graffiti.

As if that wasn’t enough, he also played for major Belgian football club Beerschot, but gave up the beautiful game at 16.

Cinema’s gain, footie’s loss.

The Mustang is in cinemas from Friday August 30.