04/09/2025 - VENICE 2025: Giulio Bertelli’s atmospheric debut is structured around three parallel portraits of sportswomen embodying different shades of fragility and strength

Alice Bellandi in AGON

Presented in competition in Venice’s International Film Critics’ Week, AGON [+see also:
trailer
interview: Giulio Bertelli
film profile] is the debut feature by Giulio Bertelli, a filmmaker already known for short-form storytelling and experimental formats. His first full-length work is an unusual, quasi-experimental exercise that merges atmospheric narrative, documentary-like inserts and the aesthetics of televised sports broadcasting. At its centre is a fictional Olympic event, Ludoj 2024, where three athletes prepare for and eventually compete in fencing, rifle shooting and judo.

The film is structured around three parallel portraits – a trio of women embodying different stages of life, and different shades of fragility and strength. Fencer Giovanna Falconetti (Yile Vianello), judoka Alice Bellandi (here playing a fictionalised version of herself), and rifle shooter Alex Sokolov (Sofjia Zobina), an Italian champion of Russian origins, move through sterile environments and aseptic settings, their routines alternating between intense training, long moments of solitude and glimpses of competition.

Bertelli and his co-editors Tommaso Gallone and Francesco Roma build a fragmented language. We witness staged interviews, segments of commentary and replays, but also more intimate observations of the protagonists’ daily lives. It is as if we were watching both a broadcast and a diary, a hybrid that questions the very line separating documentary from fiction.

Visually, the film relies on Mauro Chiarello’s competent cinematography, which embraces a palette dominated by cold, dark shades of blue, grey, green and black. The images are sharp, striking and sometimes detached, almost clinical in their precision. The result is an alienating atmosphere that mirrors the condition of the protagonists: young women who live in constant tension, their bodies turned into machines focused on performance, but whose humanity occasionally shines through. That alienation is most visible in fleeting, disturbing moments – the endless hours spent in training, the distraction of video games or the lonely masturbation to hentai material in a hotel room.

The sound design enhances this sense of estrangement. Tom Wheatley’s work in the music department gradually shifts from more neutral passages to lower-pitched, pounding instrumental motifs, adding weight and menace to the proceedings. This score underlines the paradoxes of sport itself: an activity that was born of wartime practices, transformed into professional entertainment, and which is now challenged by the emergence of e-sports and digital competitions. In this regard, technology plays a crucial role in AGON, blurring the boundaries between the real and the virtual, and suggesting how one’s sporting identity is increasingly mediated by screens and avatars.

The performances of the three leads hold the fragmented structure together. Bellandi, already a real-life champion, surprises with her ability to perform her own fictionalised self convincingly, moving beyond mere presence. Vianello brings gravitas to Giovanna, a fencer who embodies both discipline and fragility. Zobina, as Sokolov, exudes a mix of determination and melancholy, her character shaped by her dual national identity and personal insecurities.

At times, however, Bertelli’s approach feels too aloof. We sense we are getting close to these women but never quite getting under the surface. The abrupt ending reinforces this impression of incompleteness, leaving the viewer with the idea of a work in progress, rather than a fully accomplished vision. AGON seems to be caught between the rigour of concept and the need to emotionally engage the audience.

Nevertheless, the film is not without fascination. It carries a strong atmospheric essence, a precise aesthetic and an evident ambition. If Bertelli succeeds in fine-tuning his cinematic language further, keeping viewers engaged not only through ideas and visuals, but also through more empathetic storytelling, his craft could grow into something unique and memorable.

AGON was produced by Italian outfits Guerra Olimpica and Art+Vibes, US-based Big Red Films, and France’s Mia Film. Its international sales are being handled by The Match Factory.

Photogallery 29/08/2025: Venice 2025 - AGON

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Giulio Bertelli
© 2025 Isabeau de Gennaro for Cineuropa @iisadege