ULTRA (2017)

Logline

How far must you go to get close to yourself?

Synopsis

Year by year runners from around the world participate in one of the most prestigious and challenging of races, the Spartathlon. A historic distance of 246 km from Athens to Sparta within 36 hours. The protagonists all have their own personal reasons for joining the extreme run. None of them knows if they will ever be able to fulfill but they do know, that it is crucial for them to try and maybe reach the impossible. They are everyday athletes who test their limits, heal their souls and release their demons.

ULTRA is a unique journey into the pasts, hearts and minds of runners embraced by the running director. The Hungarian director, Balazs Simonyi, who has finished the race four times, tells a touching human drama about the runners and their universe of cathartic self-discoveries, voluntary suffering, and hypnotic state of mind, punctuated at times with humour. A real first-hand experience, a unique insight from an unknown world.

Track record (2013-2019)

Festivals: selected amongst the 15 Best Doc 2017 by the European Film Academy & was shortlisted for the European Film Award 2017.  Visions du Réel 2017, Sarajevo IFF 2017, Krakow IFF 2017 Trieste IFF 2018, Ulju South Korea – Grand Prize (2018), München DokFest Germany, Minsk IFF, Silver Eye Award 2017 nominee Jihlava, Man in Danger Lodz, Budapest International Documentary Festival, Hungary – Special Mention, One World Prague, Czech Republic, Let’s CEE Vienna, Austria, TIFF, Cluj, Romania, Vukovar Film Festival, Venice – Cinema Biennale, Ulju Mountain Film Festival, South Korea – Grand Prize, FICA 2018 –Silver Achilles

The story was developed with the help of Nipkow Program Berlin, EDN Docs in Thessaloniki. The project was selected for DOK Incubator, Sarajevo Docu Rough Cut Boutique and WEMW – LastStopTrieste for tutoring the editing process.

www.ultradocumentary.com

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/ultradocumentary

Director

Balazs Simonyi

Country of origin

Hungary, Greece

Film release

2017 spring (in cinemas, festivals, online and broadcast)

Estimated length

83’ cinema; 52’ & 26′ TV

Producer

Laszlo Jozsa

Balazs Simonyi

Co-Producers

Hanka Kastelicova, HBO Europe

Anna Zavorszky, HBO Europe

Rea Apostolides, Anemon Productions (Greece)

Editor

Thomas Ernst

(editor of Queen of Silence and Drifter; German Camera Award 2015 for Best Editing)

Camera

Csaba Hernath, Zoltan Lovasi and others

Sales

Cat N‘ Docs

Cinema Distributor

MoziNet

Teaser