Hot off of its world premiere at the True/False Film Festival, director Ryan Sidhoo’s documentary The Track will stop in St. Louis for a screening event at Affton High School on March 3.
The Track is a coming-of-age story that examines the lives of three boys and their coach, Senad Omanović, in Sarajevo as they train to compete on Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Olympic luge team. Filmed over five years, from 2018-2022, the film follows the trio of Olympic hopefuls as they grow up in an increasingly uncertain time and try to overcome the shadow of their country’s past. The film takes its name from the Sarajevo bobsled and luge track from the 1984 Winter Olympics that is still standing today—one of only 16 tracks of this kind in the world—and bears the battle scars of the Bosnian War that ravaged the region in the 1990s
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Sidhoo was drawn to this story after a 2016 trip to Sarajevo. He was walking along the bobsled and luge track, a popular tourist destination, and was surprised to find that it was still in use for practice. It’s where he first met Omanović, who was there training with the Slovakian luge team. He walked Sidhoo through how they were able to practice and the history of the track, which sparked the idea for a film.
“As someone who is a documentarian and also a sports lover, it really stuck with me,” Sidhoo says. “ How could it not, to see this concrete track that is covered in graffiti and bullet holes, and then you hear some guys are going to go down it at 120 KPH with no protection. It’s just fascinating to watch.”
Sidhoo also sees the track as a good visual representation of Bosnia and the tension between its past glory and present-day struggle. The theme is evident in the boys at the center of this story—Hamza, Zlatan, and Mirza—who were all born after the Bosnian War but whose lives are constantly being shaped by it. Watching them through the formative years of young adulthood, it becomes clear that they want better for their city and country, whether that’s showing their resilience by competing on a global stage or finding small-scale ways to make their lives better as young people continue to leave Bosnia and Herzegovina.
One of the key tensions in the film is the push and pull between the opportunity to represent Bosnia and Herzegovina on a global scale at the Olympics, and the luge team’s lack of adequate financial support from the government, which threatens their chances at competing. At one point, Senad breaks down in tears on live TV while imploring the Bosnian government to help support the luge team, for fear of losing out on their potential moment in the spotlight at the 2022 Winter Olympics.
The Track makes a fitting choice for the True/False Film Festival’s 2025 True Life Fund recipient. The award is given to one film each year and encourages fest-goers to donate money to impact the lives of the people they’re watching on screen.
“It’s a rare thing to see such a direct correlation with the desire as a filmmaker where you want to make a movie and you want it to benefit the people,” Sidhoo says. “True/False is helping us to raise money for the boys, just to help better their lives. I could see how every dollar will make a difference, whether in their athletic goals, education, or just getting by. You couldn’t ask for anything better than that.
Since he and Mirza Nikolajev, one of the film’s participants, are accompanying The Track to True/False, Sidhoo also saw an opportunity to bring this film directly to St. Louis’ large Bosnian community. With the knowledge that St. Louis has one of the highest Bosnian populations in America, Sidhoo reached out to Brian Jennings, a Bosnian-American studies teacher at Affton High School, to set up a screening. The free event will be held just two days after Bosnian Independence Day, on March 3. Sidhoo hopes the film offers viewers a sense of community and hope.
“I want people from the region to see the film because I think the film is uplifting and hopeful, looking toward the future and not the past, which is refreshing,” Sidhoo says. “It paints a picture of the human costs of these negative forces we’re seeing in the world and the way it impacts people. That’s the power of documentary, using the micro to tell a macro story. ”
The Track will screen locally at Affton High School on Monday, March 3. The event starts at 6 p.m. and is free and open to the public. For more information, visit ahs.afftonschools.net.
