MOVING TRIBUTE TO REAL SPORTING SUPERHEROES
Rising Phoenix (Netflix, Aug 26)
Verdict: Inspiring Paralympics documentary
Coup 53 (On demand and in cinemas)
Verdict: British spy plot in Iran
RISING Phoenix reveals the real-life struggles behind the athletes in the Paralympics: stories more amazing than any dramatist could imagine. This documentary combines the thrill of sporting competition with an emotional deep dive into the competitors’ psyches.
‘We are all superheroes . . . because we have all lived through something that didn’t allow us to succeed,’ says one of the nine athletes profiled in the film.
Sixty years after the Paralympics launched in Rome, we see South African long-jumper Ntando Mahlangu flying through the air as he runs alongside a tame cheetah, mirroring the animal’s gait on two speeding blades after his legs were amputated below the knee. His exhilaration leaves you on a high.
Some of the resilience defies belief. Italian Bebe Vio is now 23, but as a child she had parts of her arms and legs amputated to save her from meningitis. She was nicknamed ‘Rising Phoenix’ after she made a comeback, and the outpouring of tears and joy when she wins gold for fencing comes not just from that moment, but a lifetime of battles.
The film covers the history of the games, founded by Jewish refugee and doctor Ludwig Guttmann, and interviews the Duke of Sussex, creator of the Invictus Games for injured, wounded and sick members of the armed forces.
The 2012 London Paralympics, when Jonnie Peacock won the 100 metres for Team GB, was a game-changer for the competition’s profile.
Advertising posters after the main Olympics said ‘Thanks for the warm up!’, and the events were packed. This documentary deserves a similar welcome.
COUP 53 is a gripping documentary which uncovers British intelligence’s key role in the 1953 coup in Iran, which overthrew democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh and returned the Shah to power.
While it has always been admitted that the CIA and MI6 were involved in the ‘regime change’, after Mossadegh took control of Iran’s oil from the British, director Taghi Amirani finds a transcript of a secret interview from the English spy who choreographed the coup.
Torture, assassination and bribery were the order of the day, before the tanks rolled in, all seen in brutal archive footage. Ralph Fiennes turns up to re-enact the spy’s TV interview, which mysteriously disappeared before broadcast years ago.