Movie Reviews

Yiannis Kouros: Forever Running

For the last twenty years Yiannis Kouros has competed in ultrarunning better than all others. Finally his story is told through his own narration in this film documentary (Greek with English subtitles). Kouros has set 152 world records while competing in races such as "Athens-Sparta", "Sydney-Melbourne", 1,000-mile races, and 6-day events. As he points out, ultrarunning is a struggle against both nature and human endurance which takes on an almost metaphysical character. Archival footage from ultraraces are blended with Kouros speaking about his life experiences gained through running. This first person account is broken into sections ranging in time from two minutes to eleven minutes. Here are the section headings as they appear in this film: Ultrarunning, Childhood, "Spartathlon": In the footsteps of Phidippidis, Inspiration, Immigrant in Australia, Family, "Sidney-Melbourne", In Pursuit of the Record, Fear, Defeat, Death, and Olympics. The following quotes are taken directly from the subtitles, with Kouros providing the speaking. Preparations: "The verb endure is not a physical verb, it is a spiritual one. Endure means to withstand... you must be patient and then do solid training. Without patience, you will never conquer endurance"; "I practice a couple of hours morning and evening with many breaks"; "I disagree with speed and quantities; I do quality training with rhythm depending on the race's needs". Racing: "We are racing against nature, clock, time, distance... your body cannot carry you... to run for 24 or 48 hours or six days. No one completes the race via his body but via his mind."; "I eat every twenty minutes. I drink every fifteen minutes in cold, ten minutes in normal and seven minutes in heat wave. All this while moving"; "When I run the 24 hours, I never sleep; I hardly sleep on the 48 hours unless I have an incredible need to, I sleep for only ten minutes on the second night. I'll rest for ten minutes... no longer... I cannot afford to lose more time"; "I change my T-shirt every half-hour whilst running, without a second's delay. When I pause it is for the bare minimum time waste"; "I ask for music on two occasions: when tired and need inspiration or when high and wish to be higher"; "When you are at your lowest, exhausted, having nails missing, knees blown up and a sore back you try to inspire yourself and overcome these obstacles"; "The day after the race, you feel like death itself, you are in bed and they drag you about, massaging you. You drink and get to the toilet ever so often as your kidneys have packed up... indescribable moments". His thoughts: "In reality, I have lived all by myself and to date, I remain alone... I regard this as a privilege, this is how I gained, I discovered my strengths"; "The rational in doing such a sport, is to experience the extraordinary moments of exceeding. You cannot experience them in normal life"; "There is nothing more dear than your health, your life, and of course your family"; "I'd like to think myself as a messenger. I want to inspire, give the message that something is doable, it is not improbable... everything is possible as far as I am concerned as long as you go for it...". Kouros shares numerous lessons and we can all learn something about our own endurance, and life, through this film presentation. Others have awarded this film as it captured the second prize of the sixth Thessaloniki Documentary Section "Images of the 21st Century", for a documentary longer than 45 minutes. Elias Giannakakis wrote and directed this production with the musical score by Marios Aristopoulos. The only downfall to this production is that it has not been picked up by a large distribution company to be marketed beyond Greece.

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