Benjamin Marquet’s first feature-length documentary takes us into the world of jockey apprenticeship where, like the Olympic gymnasts that recently vaulted across our television sets, young teens adopt a grueling training regimen in hopes of landing an elusive career: riding at professional horse races. The film follows three of the young would-be jockeys as they go through their training. Every day they grudgingly wake at dawn and half-asleep hold onto the reins for dear life as their horses gallop around the track. Despite the accelerated pace of their coming of age, Marquet reminds us persistently that these are teenagers, for whom flirtations and cell phones can take priority over their dreams of donning the silks of horseracing. Marquet emphasizes the archaic nature of this world by cross-cutting to archival footage of boys enduring the same routine decades earlier, but he frames his present-day subjects with affecting close-ups that allow empathy for both the lads and their strict mentors. This unique film builds to a moving and suspenseful conclusion, when one of the three boys gets the call to ride in his first professional race.

Photographed by Sébastien Buchmann, Laurent Chalet, Benjamin Marquet (90 min, Les Films du Losange).