Mark Reviews Movies: OLGA

Olga, Kino Lorber

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Review by Mark Dujsik | June 23, 2022

On a larger scale, the events in the background of Olga mark the beginning of what's happening in Ukraine now (Filming finished before the recent Russian invasion, adding layers of knowledge and uncertainty to the movie's final moment, which literally leaves things up in the air). Only a prologue of sorts takes place in the country, and that absence is a significant component of the anguish experienced by the eponymous protagonist.

She's a gymnast, living in Kyiv in 2013 and preparing for an all-Europe competition. Olga, played by real-life gymnast Anastasiia Budiashikina, should only be worried about that, but then, there's an assassination attempt on her mother Ilona (Tanya Mikhina), an investigative journalist who has been reporting on the abuses of power and corruption of the government and, especially, President Viktor Yanukovych.

Olga moves to Switzerland, where her late father was a citizen, and works to become a member of that country's national team. Meanwhile, protests erupt and tensions with government forces rise back home, ultimately leading to the Maidan Revolution of 2014.

The movie, co-written (with Raphaëlle Desplechin) and directed by Elie Grappe, is intriguing in the way its protagonist is intentionally passive. There is nothing she can do in Switzerland, except to train for the competition, watch videos of the protests and resulting violence online (Grappe uses actual footage to momentary but significant effect), and call her mother and former teammate Sasha (Sabrina Rubtsova) to check on their safety and for on-the-ground updates. Feeling like an outsider in this place, where her native language isn't understood, and among this new team, who don't comprehend what's happening in Ukraine, only aggravates the isolation and helplessness she's experiencing from being away from home, with no way to help her mother, her friends, or her country.

This is a small and personal story of an important geopolitical event. While there's plenty of reason to admire Grappe's narrow attention on Olga's internalized conflict between her own ambitions and the fate of her country, the movie can only dig so far into that before it starts to feel repetitive and too far removed from that greater context. Budiashikina is quite good here, capturing a sense of despair-driven determination in her physicality at the gym and in solitude during downtime. At a certain point in this narrative, though, her performance can only do so much to illuminate a character whose entire existence in this story rests on her inability to do anything.

The screenplay's focus remains on Olga, but that character's limited capacity for taking any kind of action also limits the story's own ability for insight or to make a broader statement. Olga begins as a fascinating character study about inaction and driven by politics, but that also means it starts to feel inert and too separated from the point it wants to communicate.

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