The Track
(Canada, 90 min.)
Dir. Ryan Sidhoo
Program: Canadian Spectrum Competition
Marked with graffiti, covered in weeds, and riddled with bullet holes, Sarajevo’s 1.2-kilometre-long bobsleigh, luge, and skeleton track is a shell of its former self. Prior to the Bosnian War, it was a symbol of athletic excellence and the pride of the city. The centrepiece of the 1984 Olympics, which was the first Games held in a socialist country without any boycotts from the United States or the U.S.S.R, the track is one of 16 of its kind in the world.
Carrying the physical markers of the devastating Bosnian War in the early ’90s, the track has become a metaphor for Sarajevo itself—a structure that houses the scars of the past but refuses to fall in the face of hardship. As the audience observes in Ryan Sidhoo’s crowd-pleasing sports documentary The Track, one does not need an Olympic-sized cauldron to keep the flame of hope burning. It only takes a few passionate people to provide the spark that could potentially ignite a brighter future.
Focusing on the lead up to the 2022 Beijing Olympics, The Track observes the young men as they spend their summers training on the rundown course. The unwavering sense of resilience in Sidhoo’s film practically radiates off the three young Olympic luge hopefuls – Mirza Nikolajev, Zlatan Jakić, and Hamza Pleho – and their coach, Sedan Omanović, he follows in the film. When not sweeping away debris, plastering numerous cracks, or yelling at tourists using it for their daily hikes, the young men use wheeled sleds to train on the track.
As Sidhoo and cinematographer Jesse McCracken capture every dangerous curve the men navigate with sweeping beauty, the charms of the structure begin to shine through. Incorporating archival clips of its glory days in the ’90s, and interviews with locals and the lugers themselves, the film offers a compelling argument for why the course is important to the community, even if the locals do not quite see it themselves. Omanović makes it clear at one point that the international lugers keep inquiring about when the track will be repaired, but the lack of government and cultural support has pushed renovations to the backburner of people’s culture-war-obsessed minds.
Unable to properly glue together the sharp-edged pieces of a society shattered by conflict, post-war Bosnia and Herzegovina is a place that has become consumed with identity. As Jakić notes at one point in the film, everyone is so concerned with who is Bosnian, Serbian, and Croation that they neglect to focus on the most important thing, which is figuring out how to progress together. As if stuck in a time capsule, where the remnants of war are encased in the numerous dilapidated buildings, Sidhoo’s film presents a region that is rich in potential but stuck in the quicksand of political divide. One of the many fallouts of this cultural gulf is the fact that attention and money are being diverted away from the country’s sports programs.
The lack of financial assistance from local officials not only makes it challenging for the young men to pay the entry fees for the various qualifiers they need to compete in, but also tough to sustain their training regime. Volunteering his time, and feeling the financial strains, Omanović , a former Olympian, finds his bandwidth stretched so thin that it threatens to break.
In capturing the obstacles, both personal and sports related, the young men and their coach face over the course of numerous summers, Sidhoo constructs a fascinating meditation on the lingering impact of war. The reverberations of the past echo loudly to this day for a community still trying to figure out how to properly heal. Presenting this all within the confines of a sports documentary further adds to the audience’s desire to see the young lugers succeed.
Managing to be equally engaging and touching, The Track is a true crowd-pleaser in every sense of the word. While there are a few moments when the sweeping visuals and orchestral score are laid on a tad thick, specifically during a key competition run when the audience is already rooting for the person’s success, it doesn’t detract from the film’s compelling themes or characters. As the young men come-of-age before the viewer’s eyes, navigating everything from familial scars to girlfriends to interest beyond sports, one is always aware of the increasingly narrow window they are afforded to achieve their goals.
The Track is a wonderful film that will have you rooting for not only the underdogs, but an entire country as well.
