Award-winning film director Niko von Glasow (a paraplegic himself) travels to paraplegic athletes around the world, who are training for the 2012 Paralympic Games in London. The director hosts the film with a cutting, hilarious sense of humor; he thinks sports “suck.” Von Glasow’s direction maintains a perfect balance of respect and humor that should not be missed!
Niko von Glasow meets one-armed table tennis player Aida Husic Dahlen from Norway; boccia champion Greg Polychronidis from Greece who is paralyzed from the neck down; short-armed archer Matt Stutzman from the USA; one-legged swimmer Christiane Reppe from Germany, and Rwanda’s sitting volleyball team. Eager to learn, the director takes an upbeat and self-critical look at what pushes these athletes to their physical and mental limits, and discovers how sport has given them the courage to face life.
After his films Nobody’s Perfect (2008) and Everything Will Be Alright (2012), My Way to Olympia completes Niko von Glasow’s trilogy about the lives and feelings of people living with disabilities. (Berlin Film Festival).
My Way to Olympia results in one of the most unusual, funny, and inspiring films at DocFest, for its fearless conversations with disabled athletes regarding sex, competing, and death. (JMG)