Official US Trailer for ‘Olga’ Film About a Young Ukrainian Gymnast

Official US Trailer for ‘Olga’ Film About a Young Ukrainian Gymnast

by Alex Billington
May 30, 2022
Source: YouTube

“This is sports, not politics.” Kino Lorber has revealed the official US trailer for an indie film titled Olga, which originally premiered at last year’s Cannes Film Festival in the Critics Week sidebar. With the ongoing war bringing even more attention to Ukraine, film distributors are borrowing this attention to release films related to Ukraine. Olga is about a 15-year-old Ukrainian gymnast exiled in Switzerland, who is working to secure a place at the country’s National Sports Center. But when the “Euromaiden” revolt breaks out in the country in early 2014, anxieties rise as her family gets involved. This film isn’t about the current evens in Ukraine, but it is about a revolution in 2014 and related to Russia’s violent invasion in the country. Olga stars Anastasiia Budiashkina as the gymnast, with Sabrina Rubtsova and Caterina Barloggio. This looks like an important film about Ukraine, about fighting for what’s right, and how politics always plays into everything, even if we don’t want it to. It alos won the SACD Award at the end of Critics Week last year.

Here’s the official US trailer (+ poster) for Elie Grappe’s Olga, direct from KL’s YouTube:

Olga (Anastasia Budyashkina) is a talented teenage Ukrainian gymnast exiled in Switzerland, dreaming of Olympic gold and trying to fit in with her new team in her new home. As she prepares for the European Championships, the Ukrainian people back home in Kyiv rise up in what has become known as the Maidan Revolution, suddenly involving everyone she cares about. Olga is left a powerless, distant bystander as her mother, an investigative journalist, faces growing danger as she challenges the brutal Yanukovich regime back in Ukraine. Incorporating documentary footage from the 2013 uprising, Olga is a tense, sensitively handled tale of exile reflecting the clash between the personal and the political in a young woman’s search for identity. Olga is directed by French filmmaker Elie Grappe, making his feature directorial debut after a few other short films previously. The screenplay is written by Raphaëlle Desplechin and Elie Grappe. This initially premiered at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival in the Critics Week sidebar last year. Kino Lorber will debut Olga in select US theaters starting June 24th, 2022 throughout July. For info visit their official site.

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