FILM

LOGLINE

Five international riders from the USA, Canada, South Africa, Ireland and the UK race across Mongolia in the longest and toughest horse race on the planet — the 1000 kilometre Mongol Derby… and we’re all along for the wild ride!
Watch the trailer here

SYNOPSIS

ALL THE WILD HORSES follows international riders from around the world as they compete in the Mongol Derby in Mongolia, the longest and toughest horse race on the planet.

In this race across 700 miles of Mongolian steppe the riders are on their own, navigating from horse station to horse station where they change horses every 30 miles. They have to deal with dehydration, hypothermia, exhaustion, extreme weather, swollen rivers, attacking dogs and roaming wolves.

The riders stay the nights out in the wild or with nomad families. To choose a wrong horse at a horse station could get them bucked off, losing their mount in the process, or suffer more serious injuries.

Filmmaker Ivo Marloh rides the 1000-kilometre race twice to embed himself in the individual stories and document exactly what compels riders from all around the world to risk broken bones, life-threatening injuries, or their life savings for an experience that will change their lives forever, in one of the last true wildernesses on Earth, on the back of wild horses.

LONG SYNOPSIS

The Mongol Derby is the longest and toughest horse race in the world. A recreation of Chinggis Khaan’s Morin Urtuu postal system, the 1000 kilometer (700 miles) race is strung along a network of 27 horse stations on the Mongolian steppe, and has in its short life become an epic equine adventure of no equal.

ALL THE WILD HORSES follows endurance horse riders from the United States, Canada, South Africa, Ireland, United Kingdom and the Netherlands as they try and compete in this race.

The riders are out on the steppe on their own and navigate with GPS from horse station to horse station, spaced around forty kilometers apart. They battle extreme heat, extreme weather, swollen rivers and wild dogs, often on their own. They change their horses at every station, staying the nights out in the wild or with nomad families along the way. One wrong horse and they could be bucked off and lose their horse with help being hours away. Serious injuries, broken bones and heat exhaustion are a common and debilitating factor in the race.

After a dramatic start with first casualties already medivaced off the field, 22-year-old American rider Devan Horn battles heat, exhaustion and wild dogs as she takes the lead early on. South African horse whisperer Monde Kanyana is challenged with ever more difficult horses; and Irish jockeys Donie Fahy and Richie Killoran try to overcome setback after dramatic setback as they chase down the front runners. The film throws up twists, turns and a lot of drama as it builds to an unexpected, nail-biting finish.

ALL THE WILD HORSES has already won 8 international film festival awards as well as a few more nominations.

The director, Ivo Marloh, rode the complete race twice in order to film the action first hand and document exactly what compels riders from all around the world to risk broken bones, life-threatening injuries, their life savings and often a good dose of mental sanity to experience one of the last true wildernesses on Earth, on the back of wild horses..

PRESS

STILLS

A herder with South African rider Monde Kanyana

Photos by Richard Dunwoody, Michael J Sanderson and
Ivo Marloh

DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT
IVO MARLOH

Being raised on a farm, I learned to ride horses before I could read or write. My mother would tell me about faraway horse nations like Iceland and Mongolia, so I often dreamed of riding horses across the steppes. Years later I read about the Mongol Derby and I signed up immediately. When
I was offered a place, the filmmaker in me took over. This was too rare an opportunity to not film.

And so ALL THE WILD HORSES was conceived. I wanted to make a truly stunning film that would deliver on story, vistas and drama — a non-fiction action movie that drops the audience into the deep end. After meetings with sponsors and funding bodies, I finally had enough of a budget to take a tiny, highly skilled crew out to Mongolia.

We went from initial idea to principal photography in less than 6 months and I felt woefully unprepared. I hadn’t ridden a horse — let alone a Mongolian bronc — for years, and wasn’t sure about my mental or physical ability to endure hardship on such a scale, whilst trying to film said hardship.

DoP Michael Sanderson and sound recordist Kevin Augello couldn’t have been a more perfect team, being able to work as an independent and quick-reacting 4x4-bound 1st unit to my one-man 2nd unit on horseback.

Because the race covers such a vast area of wilderness, riders are quickly swallowed up by the landscape, so even with two units it was almost impossible to cover all the stories. This I only really understood when reviewing all the rushes once the edit started afterwards.

So I came went back to ride the race a second time to film another story, and eventually a third time, until all featured stories came together in an epic cinematic pleat.

In the end I combined my childhood dream of riding wild horses in Mongolia with my adult ambition to create inspiring films that change perceptions.

DIRECTOR'S STATEMENTIVO MARLOH

DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT
IVO MARLOH