‘Agon’ Review: Science and Sports Collide in a Haunting High-Art Study of Three Female Athletes Facing Calamity

Add a “y” to the title of Italian director Giulio Bertelli’s haunting high-art debut and you’ll get a good idea of what’s in store: plenty of agony, both physical and mental, in an eerily life-like account of three female athletes facing major catastrophes.

Not exactly a documentary, yet far from a typical work of fiction, Agon places its trio of heroines in situations ripped from the hard-knocks, highly engineered world of professional sports, pushing them to the limit and then some. After months of intense physical therapy and state-of-the-art training, all three of them wind up competing in a mock Olympic Games known as “Ludoj 2024.” But their chances of going gold are challenged by calamities they have little ability to control, putting their careers at risk.

Decidedly dark, though not necessarily bleak, Bertelli’s hybrid docu-fiction is an unflinching look at the trials and travails of contemporary sports. It’s also a visually seductive meditation on the many ways in which science — whether biological or technological — now plays a pivotal role in any serious athletic endeavor. The director, who’s the son of billionaire fashion designer Miuccia Prada (heir to the famous Italian brand and creator of Miu Miu), is no stranger to such a world, having spent years as a professional sailor before he began designing sailboats and other things himself.

Indeed, Agon lies somewhere at the intersection of athleticism and various forms of design, whether natural or artificial, real or virtual. The human body is ultimately the film’s main protagonist, put through punishing and sometimes deadly exercises to reach its apex, which in this case means winning gold at the Olympics.

Unfortunately — and quite deliberately — the three fictional athletes Bertelli chronicles find themselves facing tragic, career-changing setbacks on their way to the podium.

In the case of judo star Alice Bellandi, who plays herself here, that would be a recurring knee problem requiring invasive surgery — witnessed up close in gruesome operating room footage — followed by months of painful PT. For the sharpshooter Alex Sokolov (Sofija Zobina, La Chimera), who’s considered number one in her field during the run up to Ludoj, a leaked video of her hunting wolves turns into an online scandal. And for the fencer Giovanna Falconetti (Yile Vianello, Corpo Celeste), all seems to be going smoothly until a freak accident suddenly has her facing expulsion from the games.

What happens to each of them is pretty much as bad as it gets in their respective fields, underscoring how the best coaches and most sophisticated gear on the planet cannot prevent either the unexpected or the inevitable from occurring. Bertelli definitely puts his characters through the wringer: He doesn’t seem to be directing them as much as dissecting them, as if they were human specimens subjected to endless testing — which, in a way, is what it’s like nowadays to be a pro athlete of the highest order.

Somber and clinical, Agon plays at times like an anti-Chariots of Fire, revealing the dehumanizing underside of the world’s premiere athletic competition. But there’s also plenty of beauty in the way Bertelli captures bodies and technology at work, with DP Mauro Chiarello’s razor-sharp images highlighting the incredible skills needed to rise to such feats of excellence. Bellandi, whose long and grueling post-op recovery serves as the film’s main throughline, can be transfixing to watch — even if she hardly utters a word and spends a fair amount of time either cringing or crying out in pain.

Certain moments recall scenes from the queasy medical doc De Humani Corporis Fabrica, while others resemble the coldly observed planetary studies of Austrian filmmaker Nikolaus Geyrhalter (Homo Sapiens). But Bertelli has also created his own aesthetic here, finding new correlations between the organic and the mechanic. Bodies in motion are intercut with a bespoke gun factory’s grinding gears; human combats are juxtaposed with VR imagery or first-person shooter games. In one chilling scene, the sharpshooter Sokolov masturbates alone in her hotel room while watching a video of Japanese anime porn on her telephone, relieving weeks of stress and suffering.

Nobody winds up a winner in Agon, let alone makes it out of these faux Olympics unscathed. And yet, this fascinating fictional study reveals the extent to which athletes will keep on testing themselves, even if they risk breaking in the process. After so much blood, sweat and tears — all of which feature prominently at different points in the movie — we’re left wondering whether it’s really worth it.