Runner spans multiple aspects encompassing sports, immigration and even the violence that is Sudan. One hoping for such a story, however, is confronted with all the strangeness of deep documentary but completely realized by the figures of Bill Gallagher. – you would assume he invented it. Every inch of the herein referenced story is magnificent.
Little Maker has been on the run from as far back as I can remember. – and quite simply so. Following the conflict that ultimately split Sudan, the young boy’s father and mother worked in the southern region of 1993, and because of that they were sent to the young boy’s aunt and uncle’s house in the north; for the next few years, he will be caught, enslaved and then briefly escape only to get caught again.
In 2003, whilst living in a refugee camp, he and his family were sponsored to go to the United States; they had settled near Concord, N.H. Maker got lucky: With eight of his nine siblings, they escaped to America. In between all of these events, there are animated segments inserted, which does great damage control and storytelling.
While in high school in Concord a track coach noticed Maker’s prowess and recruited him to the team; there are clips of him competing with white teammates with crew haircuts. He continued running at Iowa State University and qualified for London 2012 Olympics.
The hitch was that he could not don the South Sudan jersey because there was no National Olympic Committee at that time; neither could he run for Sudan without denouncing all those who gave him shelter.
However, even at the last minute before the games began, a fax of permission came in – one of the few of that year’s competitors who had the dubious distinction of running under the Olympic flag. Four years later when he was in Rio, this time Maker was again running, this time as part of the South Sudans first ever group.
It is a heartbreaking tale although at times crude; but fortunate for him, Gallagher has a lot of hope because she has a lot of archival information, and she focuses on likeable characters who without self-pity relate the most dramatic parts of their lives. The picture also features numerous Maker’s friends and coworkers, who undeniably admire the man.
There are some situations. For example, there was that video of Maker’s tragic inability to qualify in a race when he won one because he ended going the wrong way with a fellow runner; or the curious episodes in which he simply crumples after the completion of a race because of fatigue. And there are some instances. Kids in a Kenyan refugee camp for South Sudan carrying those in the southwest region of the dysfunctional young nation, have watched him compete on tv and beamed with pride.
However, for all the emotions there is nothing to compare to the moment Maker hugs the soil of his native land for the first time after two decades – so emotional and heart rendering that even causes his senile mother to faint from joy. By that time, if you still have not allowed tear drops to flow down your cheeks, it is obvious you have iron pressure sails for tear ducts.
In the year 2013, Maker had taken an oath of allegiance to American citizenship and joined the United States Air force in decoration to the new state. The Runner film ends with a rather touching scenes, that here is how we are told, he was already in preparation for all the havoc centered on the 2020 Olympics – the one set to be staged in Tokyo and the plans have changed owing to the menace of the COVID – 19. But somehow, it seems that nothing can hold him back even if Maker never gets a chance of ever competing in them ever again.
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