Amby Burfoot

Last night I viewed a screening of The Athlete at the Southside Film Festival in Bethlehem. The Athlete is a film about Abebe Bikila, the greatest marathoner in history according to Amby Burfoot, whom opened the show with a brief introduction about Bikila and the film’s lead actor, Rasselas Lakew. Lakew also co-wrote and co-directed the film. The film journals Bikila’s life, centering mostly on his athletic achievements at the Olympics, a car accident that left him a paraplegic, and later his feats in the Paralympics. Bikila died at the age of 41 of a cerebral hemorrhage.

As with most great films, it takes me a couple of days to digest the entire story. Bikila’s story is a complex one. He is a quiet man, somber and serious, which in effect creates an even deeper story as one begins to understand Bikila’s level of passion for not only running, but competition and for pushing through all odds to achieve something nearly impossible for most. This passion, this drive, is one that all types of athletes possess, not just runners.

The film makers create the story by weaving together his past using actual footage of Bikila in the Rome (1960) and Tokyo (1964) Olympics, with the story of his childhood and his life post-Olympics as a paraplegic. This method of jumping back and forth through time really helps to create a more complete picture of Bikila’s story and life. From gorgeous landscape shots of Ethiopia to close up shots of the man as he overcame his injuries, to rise again to the status of an Olympian in the Paralympics as a dog sledder, an incredible story unfolds before your eyes.

Bikila is probably most famous for his first Olympic victory at the 1960 Olympics in Rome, Italy. Until that time, no black man had ever won a long distance running event. Bikila would be the first to show the world that yes, a black man could conquer not only short sprint distances, but endurance distances as well. A relative unknown in the marathon world, on this day Bikila would become the first black man to win an Olympic marathon, bring home the first Olympic gold medal to Ethiopia, break a world marathon record, and do so running barefoot. Four years later, at the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo, he broke the world record again, this time he had a mile on his competition. A mile!

Not much information is available about Bikila’s Paralympic successes which is included in this film, making this a wonderful and complete biographical picture of the man who became a hero to thousands of Ethiopians in the 1960′s. In fact, the film’s opening scene is a shot of him at his first Paralympic dog sledding competition,  which he won. The film ends with the end of a showing of a documentary of him called The Ethiopian, created by Bud Greenspan. After the film, Ethiopia’s Emperor, Haile Selassie, approached Bikila and shook his hand. In the years before his car accident which caused him to become a paraplegic, Bikila had served in the Emperor’s Imperial Guard.

Rasselas Lakew, himself an Ethiopian by birth, proclaims Bikila’s story the “greatest gladiator story” of all time. Bikila, who was born on the same day as 1932 Los Angelas Olympic Marathon, would become a marathoner himself, one day, as well as an Olympian. Perhaps his life was fated to be. This film is a great contribution to Bikila’s life and to Ethiopia’s history.

Rasselas Lakew, lead actor, co-writer and co-director of The Athlete.

The Athlete will show again on Saturday, June 18 at 5:00 pm. The screening will take place at Broughal Middle School, 114 Morton Street, Bethlehem. Tickets are $10 each.