Tokyo Olympiad

In Tokyo Olympiad, Kon Ichikawa transforms the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo into a monumental yet unexpectedly intimate visual poem. With innovative zoom lenses and striking camera work, he captures both the glory and the vulnerability of the athletes, showing the losers as much as the winners. Highlights include the Ethiopian marathon runner Abebe Bikila, who wins his second Olympic gold medal in a row, and the middle-distance runner Ahmed Issa, representing Chad, a country that at the time was younger than he was. With its crowds, workers and epic sporting feats, the film redefined the sports documentary with a profoundly humanist vision.