cinematography
Tao Qiu
editing
Zhong Zheng
music
Unur
sound
Qi Liu
production design
Zongjian Hou
costumes
Lian Liu

cast
Saina (Saina)
Undus (Hasa)
Qilemuge (Tana)
Tonggalag (Father)
Qinartu (Old Beggar)

producer
Zhulin Mo
executive producer
Tan Chui Mui
production
Da Huang Pictures

Amid the wintry steppes, Saina, a Mongolian horseman turned cultural performer, tends his ranch during the day and performs horseback tricks for audiences at night. Unlike the majestic cavalryman he portrays in the show, Saina discovers that his real life as a herdsman is on the verge of disintegrating.

2024 To Kill A Mongolian Horse
2022 Graveyard of Horses (short)

“The film is inspired by true events that happened to my friend Saina, a Mongolian herdsman who chose to become a horseback performer to have a more stable income. When I visited him at the horse show, I was struck by the hyper-masculine atmosphere, in which traditional Mongolian masculinity was prominently featured. These male performers became the subjects of a fetishized gaze celebrating not just their masculinity but also their ethnic identity. In the film, I cast Saina to play himself, portraying a character navigating between the world of horse shows and his real-life struggles. As events unfold, Saina starts to find the stark contrast between the roles he performs and his actual circumstances irreconcilable…” (Xiaoxuan Jiang)

Xiaoxuan Jiang is a writer-director born in Inner Mongolia, China. She received her BFA in Film & TV from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. Her narrative short Graveyard of Horses was selected for numerous festivals. It won the NETPAC Award at the Busan International Short Film Festival, the Grand Prix Award at the Hiroshima International Film Festival, and Best Student International Short at the Denver Film Festival. Her first feature, To Kill a Mongolian Horse, was supported by Sundance Ignite and received the script development fund from BIFF’s Asian Cinema Fund (ACF), the VIPO award, the Sørfond award at the Asian Project Market (APM), and the Whitelight Post-production Award at HAF.