Dark Horse is an offbeat comedy about Daniel, a somewhat irresponsible but charming young graffiti artist who doesn’t care even though everybody is trying to track him down: Parking attendants, landlords, bills and the police. One day he falls in love with Franc, a girl just as irresponsible and charming as he is. All of a sudden his easy-going days are over and he is face to face with a serious leap of faith. –Zik Zak
He was born in Paris, France to Icelandic parents and returned to Iceland when he was 3 years old. Dagur graduated from the National Film School of Denmark in 1999, with art house short movie Lost Weekend. The film got off to a good start and gained the first popularity winning 11 prizes on the international festival circuit.
The first feature film Noi the Albino (Nói albínói) he released in 2003 and also won several international awards. Then followed with his second film, Voksne mennesker (Dark Horse), which was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival.
In 2008, he finished his first English language film The Good Heart, starring Brian Cox, Paul Dano and Isild Le Besco. He is also a member of the band Slowblow, whose music featured in Nói albínói.
A young slacker of sorts is forced to confront responsibility after taking up with a beautiful young girl who suddenly becomes pregnant. Nothing new under the sun here but the film does have a flavour of whimsy and easy charm about it. Bro is quite good as the football referee obsessed best friend. The idea that despite walk of life all are hopeless characters to an extent comes across pretty well.
From the beginning it strongly felt like a modern version of 'I Am Curious', only the politics are much more subtle, and this works to the film's advantage: it's light-hearted, incredibly funny, honest, and beautiful. The style of 'Dark Horse' is something many young American directors are trying to accomplish, and almost invariably fail at: a great lesson on handling humour from the Scandinavians.