To Kill a Mongolian Horse

Xiaoxuan Jiang – Malaysia/USA/Hong Kong/South Korea/Japan, 2024 – 98 minutes – spoken language: Mongolian, with English subtitles

A lonesome herdsman in Inner Mongolia splits his time between harsh rural life and performing heroic national sagas in grand horseback shows in the city, as his traditional world slips away. Alongside the lead, Saina, who plays himself, director Xiaoxuan Jiang delicately peels back layers of masculinity. With a keen eye for dramatic composition, spectacle, and small interpersonal connections, the film explores the tension between tradition and change.

Prior to the main movie we will show the short film Lux Carne by Gabriel Grosclaude (18 minutes): Only those who kill are allowed to eat meat. A journalist and her dog are drawn into the bureaucracy of meat consumption.

About Sprouts Film Festival:
“In times of a glitching world, with weather extremes and inhumane conflicts intensifying, it can be tempting to avert your gaze. Instead, Sprouts wants to make the cinema a site for peaceful protest by showing newly released ecocinema and socially critical debut films. All selected features and shorts are fiction, because it is our belief that through the power of imagination we can alter our behaviour for the better and rethink our relationship with the more-than-human world. We are here to make you wonder, to inform, to spark resistance and to nurture fresh talent.”