Director
Lina Yang
Featuring
ZOU Haolin, LIANG Yini, CHENG Zining, SHI Yujia
Genres
Drama
Country
China
Language
Mandarin with English subtitles
Release Date
2023
⏲️ 102min

Our Take

Tender, yet potent, Leap of Faith is the journey of young female equestrians and the bond they share with their horses.

A tale of Girl-Horse, Power and Resilience

Young girls Haolin, Yini, Zining, and Yujia are about to compete in an equestrian championship tour in China. Told from the gaze of three mothers, including the director herself, the film is a gallery of personal moments, happy and sad.  We are brought to follow fragments of the girls’ trip, as they learn to trust each other, connect with their horses, experience difficult times, and slowly grow. Lina Yang’s film is an eulogy to the energy of youth, while it tries to bring in mature voices, and nuanced angles for a richer and more granular texture.

Lina Yang has filmed some of the girls together with their mothers, as they try to bridge the gap that separate them and the heavy weight of expectations. Quietly exploring the fears and hopes of the participants, the film is tender, yet potent; arduous, yet brimming with hope. It is bound to lead us to reminisce our own adolescence, to feel the world lay at our feet with palpable truth.

Leap of Faith closed last year, the Mulan International Film Festival in Toronto, Canada.

• Book tickets here | Thursday, October 17, 8:45 pm, Friday, October 18, 1:30 pm | ICA, London.