Veteran ethnographic documentarian Leslie Woodhead helmed this U.S.-British docudrama about Ethiopian long-distance runner Haile Gebrselassie (with the Atlanta Olympic games sequence directed by Bud Greenspan). Gebrselassie won the gold medal in the men's 10,000-meters race at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games, and the Atlanta race serves as a framing device. Yonas Zergaw, the athlete's nephew, portrays him as a youth, with Gebrselassie portraying himself from age 18. At his native village of Asela, he ran 12 miles daily to school. When fellow Ethiopian Miruts Yifter won the 10,000-meter race at the 1980 Moscow Olympics, Haile was inspired and became a serious runner at 17, moving to Addis Ababa to begin training. Haile's late mother is played by his eldest sister. Haile's father portrays himself in later scenes, with Haile's first cousin acting as the father as a younger man in the film's earlier sequences. Shown at 1998 film fests (Telluride, Venice). ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
Review
No question that Endurance is a splendid film about an unlikely hero. And heaven knows, we need inspirational sagas to lend a spiritual hand up to the next generation of would-be athletes. But if your subscriptions to Runner's World or National Geographic lapsed because their subject matter held little interest for you, then Endurance may test your patience. East African folk rhythms and exotic Ethiopian locations set the realistic tone for the docudrama, which has the nifty gimmick of being acted, with very little spoken dialogue, by the same people who actually lived the incidents portrayed onscreen. But, as real as he is, Haile Gebrselassie is a runner, not an actor, and he and his family members are just a bit too "real" as they go through the domestic turmoil caused by Haile's decision to become an unlikely world class athlete. Co-director Bud Greenspan filmed each of the Atlanta Olympics' 10,000 meter finalists individually in anticipation of the feature film, so viewers could be watching the life history of a Burundian, Briton, Moroccan, or a Dane had they won. As it is, Haile's story is compelling, but not indispensable -- unless one needs the inspiration to become a world-class runner. ~ Buzz McClain, All Movie Guide
Cast
Haile Gebrselassie - himself
Shawananness Gebrselassie - Young Haile's Mother
Yonas Zergaw - Young Haile Gebrselassie
Tedesse Haile - Young Haile's Father
Gebrselassie Bekele - himself
Alem Tellahun - herself
Credit
Eric O'Rourke - Associate Producer, David Wason - Associate Producer, Sally Roy - Co-producer, Mohammed Idris - First Assistant Director, Bud Greenspan - Director, Leslie Woodhead - Director, Oral Norrie Ottey - Editor, Saar Klein - Editor, Werner Koenig - Executive Producer, Thomas Sumners - Executive Producer, Wallace Wolf - Executive Producer, John Powell - Composer (Music Score), Ivan Strasburg - Cinematographer, Terrence Malick - Producer, Edward R. Pressman - Producer, Max Palesvky - Producer, Neil Kingsbury - Sound/Sound Designer, Claude Letessier - Sound/Sound Designer
