I saw “The Athlete” this week. I is a biography-drama film about Abebe Bekila. If you haven’t seen the film yet and plan to do so, then you might not want to read this. There is little to spoil as the story is already pretty well known. But anyhow, just a warning.
So the film. Its very well shot. Specially the landscapes. There is one very very nice shot in the film where it shows Abebe training in the highlands. We see Abebe running close by and the camera slowly zooms out till the point that he is too tiny to see and the whole landscape he is in comes into perspective. We see a beautiful mountainous landscape with cliffs and mountains. I’d say it is early in the morning or just before dusk because the sun is shining sideways on the land. Come to think of it, I’d actually be interested to see more of the landscape in documentary (nature like) films. That shot was nice. There is also another one towards the end of the movie where Abebe and his couch get out of their car and admire the landscape. Abebe says something touchy about the sun shining on that land forever.
I’m not sure where they shot these. The first thing that came to my mind when they showed the cliffs was Abay Berha. But that probably isn’t Abay Berha. Abay Berha is very deserty as I remember it. It has a more white like landscape with less trees and probably sandy soil. Maybe its Lima Limo. I’ve heard a lot of horror stories about Lima Limo. Buses breaking down in the middle, road being slippery, and so on. So maybe it’s that. But who knows Ethiopia is a big country. I’ve even went to somewhere between Debre Sina and Debre Zeit which and walked a mountainous area for hours and hours. Seeing these shots makes me feel insignificant. In a good way though. Insignificant in that my worries are minute when compared to this landscape. It probably doesn’t make sense to you when I compare worries with mountains but that’s just how it makes me feel. I just feel like there is a larger picture, something more important, and that nothing is really as big as I think it is.
My most favorite part of the film is when Abebe chats with a priest in his car. He encounters the priest as he was driving along. The priest’s carriage was broken. Abebe pays some money to the carriage driver on behalf of the priest. As the usual Ethiopian tradition the priest says he could have paid himself and thanks Abebe. So on their way the they have a great conversation and we get to hear how Abebe was raised. The priest asks Abebe if he goes to church. Abebe says no. The priest then starts sing a church song. The best part about it was Abebe follows him without hesitation. You then believe that it is really inside him. What I found painful was they find a blind horse in the middle of the road. I coudn’t believe it when Abebe explained that horse owners poke the eyes of old horses so they don’t come back. That is very cruel. Never heard of that before. As far as I have seen farmers are attached to their animals. I can understand selling animals or slaughtering them for holidays but this seemed so cruel. So Abebe decides to shoot down the horse but takes the priest’s advice to let him live another day. The priest tells him calmly that the horse will get picked up by another owner. Very good acting there both from “Abebe” and “The Priest”.
One thing I didn’t like about the film (and a friend of mine) was that it was a sad film. It had good moments in it but was just too sad. From the outset, the film starts with Abebe driving. We see driving throughout the film. We are given many hints that he will have a car crash. I kept saying in my head “Maybe he will crash now”. The road is important in the film. We experience a lot of things when is in the road. But I think the film would have looked better if they didn’t give any hints about crashing. For example, one time he almost has an an accident when he tries to overtake a car. That I think is unimportant. He could have peacefully driven and the focus could have been on other interesting parts of the story. The story also focuses on his time after he gets paralyzed. There were many more interesting things to show, for example how was it like in his first race, how did he prepare, what was the expectation from his family, he must have felt the pressure and that would have been nice to show.
The actors I think come from a theatrical background, as many other Ethiopian. Theater has well thought scripts, it has long pauses, it is loud, it is more of body action than face expression. So the problem is when you have these people in films, the film looks like a theater. There is a scene for example where Abebe is pushed to leave a bar because some other solider was hostile towards him. Another guy stops Abebe and says this long loud well thought speech. It’s a touching thing what he said but I couldn’t stop noticing that it was very theatrical. He could have said it in a more natural manner while still keeping the contents of his speech.
The guy playing “Abebe” is a serious guy, laughs occasionally and thinks for a while before speaking. It sometimes looks like he doesn’t give a shit about everything else. When the priest talked to him, it first looked to me that he just didn’t want to speak to the priest. But he ended up singing with the priest and all my fears were gone 
I think he also performed in theaters in the past. It works for him though. He is a cool character.
Many other things I want to comment about but I have to go. I give it 7 out of 10. Must watch.
