The Rider

Chloé Zhao reinvents the American Western as a space for gentle cowboys who are bruised but unbroken by the unfathomably dangerous world of rodeo.

In the Badlands of South Dakota, Brady is still tender and tending to his wounds from a rodeo accident that nearly cost him his life. His days of rodeo riding are behind him – he has acquired a brain injury that will deteriorate with further riding – but after he buys a temperamental horse to train, the call of the rodeo ring becomes strong again.

Curator’s note
The Rider is said to have started with a creative experiment: take a real-life horse trainer who is skilled in gaining the trust of unruly horses, and see whether they can gain the trust of cinema audiences. Brady Jandreau doesn't so much gain our trust; he has it from the first moment he appears on screen.

Filmed on a shoestring with a crew of six people and a cast of non-professional actors, including Jandreau – who was discovered training horses when Zhao directed her first film Songs My Brother Taught Me – The Rider is a triumph of independent filmmaking. The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in the Directors’ Fortnight section, where it won the Art House Cinema Award.