The Athlete (Atletu)(Davey Frankel / Rasselas Lakew, 2009): USA/Germany/Ethiopia

Reviewed by Jonas Pedersen Hardebrant. Viewed at Metro 4, at Santa Barbara International Film Festival.

The Athlete is a biography about the Ethiopian marathon runner Abebe Bikila who astonished an entire world when he won the marathon at the Olympics in Rome 1960, barefooted. In the beginning of the race he was counted out as people didn’t believe that you could run a marathon barefoot and beat the competitors but Bikila did it and with a new unofficial world record time. 4 years later in Tokyo he did the same achievement but this time with shoes. To fulfill his hattrick he entered the Olympics in Mexico City 1968, but had to abandon the race due to an injury and thereby leave another Ethiopian, Mamo Wolde to take over and win the race.

When we first encounter Abebe Bikila (Rasselas Lakew) in the movie he has decided to finish his career with a final race at the Olympics in Munich. He is a well-respected athlete by the elder people he encounter because as they say “ He is the first real African to win an Olympic gold medal in track and field”. We are reminded that to be a successful athlete you have to sacrifice not only your time and energy but also your social and family life, which we understand in a phone call that Bikila makes to his wife in the beginning of the film.

One year after his defeat in Mexico City, Bikila crashes with his car, which will give him severe injuries, and he gets paralyzed from the waist and down. He is flown to London to get the best care possible, and as the true athlete he is, during rehabilitation he finds another sport to fit his condition and that will give his life a new turn, archery.

In my opinion the movies absolute highlights lay with the nature shots of Ethiopia. But it is supposed to be so much more than that. As I am not an expert in Bikila I don’t know how he was like a person but I believe that he had more than just one facial expression. You see him when he is running, injured, happy and sad, unfortunately you can’t tell from his face but you have to rely on the surroundings.

The story is powerful and after what I have encountered Bikila is seen not only among the Ethiopians but also around the world as one of the great Olympians. What I doubt though is that people that aren’t or haven’t been athletes themselves will understand the feelings that are involved in his story. Because the story deserves to be told and people should see how this man was a groundbreaker for Africans in the Olympics.

What makes me confused and makes me loose the interest a little bit, is how many interesting details are left out of the picture, while some, according to me meaningless story gets a lot of attention. Bikilas family, friends and hard work goes almost totally unnoticed throughout the movie, while the injuries and rehabilitation steal the spotlight. In my opinion, to make a biography movie documentary about an athlete, you shouldn’t concentrate on the accomplishments at a hospital but at the field, where I think the strength, power and impressiveness about Abebe Bikila lies.