Endurance

This docudrama directed by Britain's Leslie Woodhead follows the rise of Ethiopian runner and Olympic champion Haile Gebrselassie. Bookended by the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games, where Haile wins the gold medal for the men's 10,000-meter run, the bulk of the film looks back to Haile's adolescence in the Ethiopian countryside. Running through dry fields, six miles to school, spending another three hours a day fetching water, and witnessing his mother's decline, Haile (who is played by the runner's real-life nephew, Yonas Zergaw, until later scenes, where Haile plays himself) gets the ruler from his teacher for being late, a whack from his father for not focusing on farm work, and still he hangs on to his dreams of running with a humble tenacity.

The imagery of the film is impressive, with the wide-open African countryside and the congested streets of Addis filling the screen. Haile runs (and I mean runs) through these landscapes in his American-style running shorts, his breath reverberating in our ears. The film lags a bit in the second half, perhaps because we know where this runner is headed (even when he comes in 99th in his first marathon, even when his father tells him again and again that running is not a good idea) and we'd like him to hurry up and get there. An hour and a half with Endurance may make you want to try harder, complain less, and hell, maybe even run.

-- Rachel O'Malley