Olga

(Elie Grappe, France/Switzerland/Ukraine 2021, 85 min., DCP, Russian, French, and German w/English subtitles)

A talented teenage Ukrainian gymnast (former Ukrainian national team gymnast Anastasia Budiashkina in a star-making role), exiled in Switzerland, dreams of Olympic gold in Elie Grappe’s multi-award-winning drama set in 2014. Fifteen-year-old Olga is trying to fit in with her new team in her new home, but as she prepares for the European Championships, the Ukrainian people rise up in what has become known as the Maidan Revolution. Olga is left a powerless, distant bystander as her mother, an investigative journalist, faces danger as she challenges the brutal Yanukovich regime. This historic context provides rich insight into what is happening today, and it all takes place from the point of view of a young woman abroad yearning to go back home to her mother and her people. A subtle, tensely handled tale of exile reflecting the pressures on young athletes, the clash between the personal and the political, and a young woman’s search for who she is.