It’s safe to say that Russia isn’t exactly having the best press at the moment. As the scandal around their involvement in the U.S. election continues to swirl, the Sundance Film Festival Special Jury Award winning documentary “Icarus” is now on the horizon, and promises to expose the depths that Russia’s Olympic team went to take home medals.
Bryan Fogel‘s audacious documentary finds the bike racer and director embarking on his own journey of illegal doping, which brings him into the orbit of Dr. Grigory Rodchenkov, who becomes the focal point of an array of accusations about Russia’s sports program. Here’s the official synopsis:
In the truly audacious documentary ICARUS, director Bryan Fogel’s bold gambit was this: to investigate doping in sports, Fogel (an amateur bike racer) would dope himself, observe the changes in his performance, and see if he could evade detection. In doing so, he was connected to a renegade Russian scientist, Dr. Grigory Rodchenkov, a pillar of his country’s “anti-doping” program. Over dozens of Skype calls, urine samples, and badly administered hormone injections, Fogel and Rodchenkov grow closer despite shocking allegations that place Rodchenkov at the center of Russia’s state-sponsored Olympic doping program. When the truth is more complex than imagined, and accusations of illegalities run to Russia’s highest chains of command, the two realize they hold the power to reveal the biggest international sports scandal in living memory. Exemplifying the special bond between filmmaker and subject, this is a vital portrait of the sacrifice some people will make to stand up for truth. ICARUS places you at the heart of an international game of cat and mouse, where a miscalculation can cost you your life.
“Icarus” hits Netflix on August 4th.