Ramazan Nanayev’s dream
of competing in the Olympics didn’t come to fruition. His debut feature film,
‘Roads to Olympia’ highlights the internal struggles that an athlete has to
face before competing against a game
When Ramazan Nanayev heard the news that his debut feature film, ‘Roads to
Olympia’ was selected for the International Film Festival of India, Asia’s
oldest film festival, his happiness knew no bounds. The film had its world
premiere at the Durban International Film Festival in South Africa and this was
its Asian premiere screening. After five years of hardwork, Ramazan says he is
itching for criticism.
Born and brought up until the age of 13 in North Caucasus,
Russia, Ramazan moved to the US for further studies where he participated as a
decathlete but couldn’t make it to the Olympic dream team. He ventured into
film making and after writing, producing and directing short films, this is his
major breakthrough with a powerful personal film.
“Roads to Olympia is a personal story with my experiences as an
athlete and those close to me. I instilled those experiences in this film and
hope that it will shed light on the injustices people face when trying to reach
an equal level playing field. The competition that they face is secondary to
the challenges that they face in their personal lives,” says Ramazan, who was
present for the film screening at the 50th edition of the festival.
Unlike standard sport films, ‘Roads to Olympia’ shares the
stories of three young athletes based in Russia, Saudi Arabia and Brazil. “The
film is not a sports drama, it is a drama. The characters wrestle with not
really the competition but they face issues within their culture and
socio-economic issues which affects millions if not billions of people. The
stories are universal.
In Russia, they have an anti-gay law. The story was inspired by
my good friend in college. I witnessed his struggle with coming to terms with
his identity.
The Saudi Arabian story was inspired by my sister as I was born
into a Muslim family and seen the mistreatment of women in some Islamic
cultures. The reason I chose Saudi Arabia is because it is the richest Middle
Eastern country and the capital of Islam. There is so much responsibility on
that country and yet it’s still behind a 100 years in human rights,” he
explains.
He further adds, “The Afro-Brazilian story is that of an athlete
who wants to get out of poverty and he doesn’t have access to opportunity and
is forced to make very unfortunate decisions to be able to compete on the same
level as other athletes”
Talking about his own personal experiences, he said “After my parents
lost their jobs in Russia and never recovered, I grew up in a community where
children didn’t have much opportunity. There are a lot of people who want to
compete and have an active life but have no access to sports or clubs which can
ultimately help people better themselves”
He wanted to make sure that every story is as authentic as
possible. “We want to make fiction as real as possible. We talked to people who
were affected, lived there with them and used local cast and crew. Only three
people went from one location to another including me. There were shortcomings
like shooting in Jordan instead of Saudi Arabia because we didn’t have access
and we couldn’t source talent from that country. For the Russia part, we shot
in New York City and external shots were taken in Russia. We were able to pull
this film off which was a miracle. It’s a low budget film and it doesn’t look
like it. People saw the message and felt that it could have an impact on the
world,” he says.
Ramazan wanted to be an Olympian but it never happened because
he was an immigrant in the United States. “I couldn’t accept scholarships
because they were government grants and was not a citizen. I had to drop out of
college directly which ended my athletic career which led me to pursue my filmmaking
career to make some money and help my family and move on,” says Ramazan, who
hopes to release the film early next year before the Olympic Games.
What is the criticism he has been receiving? “The film tends to
come off as a commercial film instead of an art house and people feel it is too
polished.
We want to capitalise on it and instead of spending on film
festival circuits, we want to go straight to Netflix or other major OTT
platforms and then sell it so we can time it with the Olympic Games and create
the biggest impact. We are trying to find champions for the film who will add
value to it. We are talking to various sportspeople who are invested in human
rights where they can use the film as a vehicle for change,” he concludes.
Clearly Roads to Olympia is a universal story of struggle, and the film only tells stories on this long road. Stories that were, that are, and those that will be