Overview
- New reviews assess Giulio Bertelli’s first feature, focusing on three Italian athletes training for a fictional 2024 Games set in the invented city of Ludoj.
- The film follows a judoka rushing a knee rehab, a fencer rattled by an early collapse, and a rifle shooter facing fallout from a viral illegal wolf hunt video that scares off sponsors.
- Real 2024 Olympic judo gold medalist Alice Bellandi plays the injured fighter, and critics note her arc carries a documentary charge that includes clinical rehab moments like arthroscopic surgery.
- Reviewers say the movie shuns feel‑good sports beats to show injury risk, mental strain, and the way athletes get treated as units in a money‑making machine.
- Critical response diverges, with RogerEbert.com finding a thoughtful, unsentimental study of modern sport, while The Playlist dismisses it as alienating and contrived with surreal devices and crowdless soundstage competitions.