During a scene in The Track set at Calgary's Junior Luge World Cup in 2018, the camera pauses briefly on a poster detailing the story of the Jamaica national bobsleigh team, which famously inspired the film Cool Runnings.
That's a clear reference point for The Track, which follows the four-year journey of a luge team in Bosnia and Herzegovina as they attempt to restore a dilapidated track in Sarajevo and qualify for the 2022 Olympics.
But while Cool Runnings was an underdog comedy, The Track is a little more fraught, as its teenage subjects live in poverty in a country that, three decades since the Bosnian War, is still reeling from the trauma and devastation of that conflict. The track itself — a gorgeous brutalist structure that snakes across a forested mountain and is covered in vividly colourful graffiti — is itself a casualty of war, as soldiers drilled holes in it to shoot through.
Canadian director Ryan Sidhoo filmed The Track over several years — such a long time that a couple of the teenage subjects have given up luging by halfway through the doc; one kid in particular changes so much in both appearance and circumstance that, after one time jump, I initially didn't recognize him and was briefly confused about why the film was suddenly interviewing some random guy.
But while The Track's scope means that it sometimes loses sight of the sports storyline, it ends up telling the broader story of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the struggle for youngsters to find direction in a country still dealing with the lingering effects of war. The footage of Sarajevo is eerily beautiful, full of crumbling apartment blocks and eye-popping graffiti, making a stunning backdrop for nostalgic scenes showing the teens hanging out with friends. A melancholic score, co-composed by Brasstronaut's Edo Van Breeman, adds to the bittersweet tone.
As an older man explains in the film's opening moments, destroying something is quick and easy; rebuilding it, on the other hand, takes decades. Current world leaders, take note.
Hot Docs runs April 24 to May 4, 2025. Find details about tickets over at the festival's website.