The Track
A documentary film about Sarajevo’s Olympic bobsled and luge track and the people who ride it.
With Ryan Sidhoo (The Track).
Listen: “The Track” (Episode #117)
Bonus Extras: “The Track” (Episode #117)
Extended, ad-free version of “The Track” (Episode #117).
Transcript: “The Track” (Episode #117)
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PETER KORCHNAK: This episode of Remembering Yugoslavia is brought to you by Yugoblok, a member-supported global community and resource hub for all who remember Yugoslavia. Through membership contributions, Yugoblok members make this podcast (and a whole lot more) accessible and freely available to all.
Visit Yugoblok.com to explore and join today.
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PETER KORCHNAK: This is Remembering Yugoslavia, a Yugoblok show exploring the memory of a country that no longer exists. I’m your coach, Peter Korchnak.
The 1984 Sarajevo Olympics are a huge part of Yugoslavia’s memory, in that city and across that former country. I myself have dedicated an entire (and long) podcast episode to it (that’s #52, “Remembering Sarajevo 1984 Winter Olympics”).
A prominent character in that story was the Olympic bobsled and luge track, whose concrete hulk sits ruined and abandoned at Mt. Trebević.
The valiant effort I talked about in that episode, back in 2022, to renovate the track has stalled. For now the track remains a major attraction on Sarajevo’s mountainous outskirts, included on tourist maps and to-do lists.
RYAN SIDHOO: It’s a huge tourist attraction but the frustrating thing is that so many people want to visit the track, because it’s not working. It has graffiti on it’s kind of broken, and it’s a bit in ruin. So it’s a little bit of a Catch 22.
PETER KORCHNAK: Ryan Sidhoo is a filmmaker in Vancouver, British Columbia. He is the director and producer of The Track, his debut documentary centered around the Olympic bobsled and luge track in Sarajevo. The film premiered last February.
The track is actually not just a vestige of Yugoslavia’s glory days and a tourist attraction. It is being used as a summer training ground.
Today on Remembering Yugoslavia: a film about Sarajevo’s Olympic bobsled and luge track.
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PETER KORCHNAK: By his own admission, Sidhoo loves the Balkans.
RYAN SIDHOO: I think it stems from my own personal life that I come from a very small, fragmented family. And I think growing up, I always wanted a big family or a community, and I just, you know, I had elements of that when I was younger, growing up in Vancouver, but not to the extent that I wanted.
And just by chance, one of my best friends here that I grew up with, he has family actually now in Novi Sad, he’s originally from Sarajevo, and he invited me one summer to go back with him to Serbia, and I went with him, and immediately, just the hospitality, the warmth, just the way people there have a level of familiarity with you, and a level of comfort, even though you might have met them for one minute, I just felt so welcomed by everybody, and everyone was so friendly that it really filled this kind of void in my life, that again, I was searching for this community, for this family feeling, and I found it in the region.
PETER KORCHNAK: That first trip in 2012 begat another and another until ten years ago…
RYAN SIDHOO: —just a chance encounter, I was walking one day at the track. It’s this tangible piece of Olympic history, and I’m a big sports fan, and the fact that I could just, you know, touch this, this track, this concrete that was a part of the Olympics, and it was very special Olympics, and was in Sarajevo, which was a small city, and no one really thought that they could pull it off and they did. So just all of the lore around the ‘84 Winter Olympics and Sarajevo and Vučko and all of this. It was for me, just it was like visiting a museum, a living, breathing museum. So just as a sports fan and loved the region in the history of the region, I was totally enamored by it, and I think that’s why I went there in the first place.
I was walking on the track, and all of a sudden these guys started yelling at me, “Get off the track, get off the track!” And I said, No problem. I got off the track. But I was obviously curious of why these guys were yelling at me. And it actually was the Slovakian luge team who were one of the first to come train at Trebević, and they told me what they were doing. And automatically, I just— one, I just thought, okay, these guys are nuts. This is crazy, that they’re sledding down this concrete structure that’s kind of falling apart at incredibly high speeds. And then obviously the filmmaker side of me went, I have to document this.
PETER KORCHNAK: And document he did. Sidhoo embedded himself with the Bosnian luge team which also maintains and practices at the track. The team at the time comprised Hamza Pleho, Mirza Nikolajev, and Zlatan Jakić.
RYAN SIDHOO: The film is about three friends, Zlatan, Mirza, and Hamza, who are at the start of the film, they’re, you know, 15, 16 years old, just like any normal kid in Sarajevo, except for the fact that they participate in luge, which is when you lay on your back and you slide down the track and they’re guided kind of by this Obi Wan, if you want to make a Star Wars reference, character in Senad, who is this? a big guy, and you can see pictures of him in his, you know, primacy of his really big muscles, but he’s just like a teddy bear. He’s like, very sweet and actually, very sensitive, and he cares so much about the future of these boys.
PETER KORCHNAK: Senad Omanović is the president of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s national luge association and the Bosnian luge team’s coach.
RYAN SIDHOO: And collectively, they are doing their best one to refurbish the destroyed bobsled and luge track on Trebević, which really serves as a metaphor. I mean, the track serves as a metaphor, I think, for the country, of something that had this, you know, kind of glorified past, and currently it’s not in the best shape, and the future is a little bit unpredictable, but here are just these well intentioned, inspired young men trying to make the best of it, with the guidance of Senad. And in the film really charts this journey of one the boys trying to make sense of entering adulthood and at the same time pursuing their Olympic aspirations.
PETER KORCHNAK: While a lot of action takes place at the titular track, the film is less a description of the place and more a story of the journey the lugers and their coach undertake, to keep the sport alive in their country, to do something good, something they believe in, and yes, to eventually reach the Olympic stage.
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RYAN SIDHOO: I mean, yes, it’s a sports movie, but at the same time, it’s just a coming of age story of three boys in Sarajevo, and I think their story also, you know, speaks to other young people coming of age in the region, whether it be in Serbia or Croatia or Montenegro, you know. So I think the sports is one part of it.
But again, it’s just everyday issues that these young people are dealing with and I think that, showing the challenges of the region, you know, we don’t shy away from that, but I think what was really important, and what was important to the families, is that we show that there is a younger generation who’s incredibly talented and are trying to uplift despite some of the barriers and despite some of the hangover from the war.
PETER KORCHNAK: The narrative arc spans several years. The documentary took almost a decade to make.
It’s a long process. I don’t know if people realize necessarily how long these things, I mean, documentaries, can take to make and so you decided to document what’s going on, but then what kept you going? What grabbed you and kept you grabbed for this long? I mean, it’s really like an insane amount of time.
RYAN SIDHOO: The easy answer, is just, you know, my love for the region, my connection with the team, with the boys, you know, we’ve kind of become like a family. I would say I co-authored the film with the people on screen. I think that’s the kind of short and easy answer.
But, you know, when I think about it, I was just so fascinated by it. Like, how could you not be right? Like, how could you not just look at that track and these, you know, young at the time, just, you know, teenagers, barely teenagers, trying to do something great. Their coach, who is longing for the glory of the 84 Olympics, has the Yugonostalgia bug for sure. Senad is definitely inspiring them, and sets a really great example. It was just so inspiring.
And I, at the time, I didn’t know, am I going to get money? how am I going to fund this? But there was just something inherent about that story that was so captivating, and I guess just touched my heart that I just knew I had to tell it.
And then, you know, just by chance, how the calendar year works and where they were with their age going, “Oh, well, maybe one of them will make the Olympics, maybe they have a shot at the 2022 Olympics, or the 2026 Olympics.” I mean, I think that put a little bit of a finish line to the film that I could work back from. So I just had to keep going and hope that they kept going and just document it.
PETER KORCHNAK: Keep going they did. Mirza Nikolajev participated in the 2022 Beijing Olympics, becoming the first Bosnian luger to do so since 1998. He was Bosnia and Herzegovina’s flag bearer at the opening ceremony,
and went viral in the host country with a wink at the cameras during the Parade of Athletes. You could say Nikolajev is big in China.
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PETER KORCHNAK: As any good documentary, The Track uses the personal, individual stories of the lugers to tell a bigger story—or two.
RYAN SIDHOO: Yyes, the track itself is a symbol of the country.
And in Zlatan, you know, you know, at the onset of the film, he’s kind of wondering, should I stay or should I go? And that speaks to a larger trend of the brain drain in the region.
PETER KORCHNAK: Jakić delivers one of the film’s most poignant lines, pointing at a major reason people leave Bosnia and Herzegovina.
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RYAN SIDHOO: Hamza is dealing with inter- generational trauma, dealing with some some of that from from how his father has been impacted in the war.
And in Mirza, is this, you know, overly optimistic young man who just has an incredible work ethic and just isn’t deterred by any of the roadblocks that are put up in his way.
But all of them, you know, you kind of use the micro to tell the macro.
And you know, we naturally just tackled, I think, a lot of issues in the region, whether it be the brain drain or, you know, this kind of generational trauma is that is passed down from the war. And also sometimes just the lack of resources and funding for young people.
And what I hope the film demonstrates is that I think the greatest resource of Bosnia is the talent of its young people. And it’s really unfortunate that some have to leave, because I think a lot love their country and they want to see it thrive, and they want to help it, and sometimes the opportunity isn’t there, or they have to work, you know, 50 times or 100 times as hard as someone in Canada, in Germany, to achieve their goals.
And I’m just constantly blown away by the amount of talent there.
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PETER KORCHNAK: The Track premiered at the True/False Film Fest in Columbia, Missouri last February. Columbia is just a couple of hours west of St. Louis, home of the largest concentration of the Bosnian diaspora in the world (check out Episode 84, “Sarajevo, USA” for that story).
RYAN SIDHOO: So it was extra special to have the world premiere there. The reception was amazing. Mirza came out from Sarajevo.
And I was a little nervous, because the first time anyone has seen this movie, we opened up, and there was sold out, you know, 1,300 people at this old theater, and and the film ends, and Mirza comes out on stage. Not everyone knew he was going to be there, so it was a bit of a surprise to see him come out.
I’ve never experienced something like that in my life, you know, I just kind of get chills thinking about it. But the whole crowd just erupted when— he was kind of the special guest and came out from behind the curtains and was presented on stage, and there was like a minute standing ovation for him, and 1,300 people going crazy. He was just the biggest rock star. He was like, Tito, 1970s level of enthusiasm for him there, like it was honestly pretty crazy. I’ve never seen something like that for someone in a documentary before, and I think he was also really humbled and overwhelmed. And you know, it was also just a big relief for me that the movie resonated and landed with people.
Honestly, if nothing else happened with the movie, and we just went to that festival and Mirza had that experience, I’d be happy, and everything else after that’s kind of just been icing on the cake.
We showed the film in Toronto at Hot Docs Film Festival, and there is a really large Bosnian community there. It was actually great. Like, for example, there was an Olympic athlete, Winter Olympic athlete from 1992 who came to watch the movie. And you know, it’s classic, Mirza was there, also in Toronto. And then Mirza ended up staying at this guy’s house…
PETER KORCHNAK: The Hot Docs Film Festival honored The Track with the True Life Fund, quote “a philanthropic effort that annually raises money and awareness for the subjects of a new nonfiction film. This year, the True Life Fund offer[ed] tangible assistance to Mirza, Zlatan, and Hamza featured in The Track and acknowledged that documentary filmmakers and festivals thrive because of the stories given to us by people.”
RYAN SIDHOO: The response from at least the diaspora, because we haven’t showed in the region yet, but, but people just, you know, they go, oh, you know, I this reminds me when I was young, or I remember this, or, you know, my cousin went through the same thing that Hamza went through. There’s a lot of stories like that, and it’s been really nice that the films resonated and landed, not only with audiences who have no connection to the region, but people from there.
Since then, it’s had a pretty robust festival run and we’re just kind of riding that wave right now and super excited to be showing at Dokufest in Kosovo, which is a really cool festival, and then also a bit of a hometown screening at the Sarajevo Film Festival here in August.
PETER KORCHNAK: Dokufest is an annual international documentary and short film festival in Prizren. The Track will be showing in the Balkan Dox category.
The Sarajevo Film Festival takes place the third week of August and The Track will be in the Open Air section.
RYAN SIDHOO: And I would think sometime in the fall of 2025 or around the next Olympics, the film will be available for everyone to watch, and I’ll keep you updated.
And there’s on the trackmovie.com, there’s pictures, and there’s an exclusive clip of the boys training and kind of Senad, you know, coaching and waxing poetic about the situation.
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PETER KORCHNAK: Sidhoo’s next project, as he puts it, is getting people to watch the film.
RYAN SIDHOO: When I think about what I want to do next, it’s hard not to think about doing another project, you know, maybe in Bosnia or Serbia. I don’t know. There’s just something kind of intoxicating and mesmerizing about the region, and I think a lot of people there deserve to have their stories told, and hopefully this film demonstrates a fresh perspective, or it doesn’t always have to be tied to a certain time period or certain narrative. And, you know, I really like working with people who are inspiring change and striving for goals and trying to, you know, do things against the grain, despite some of the forces working against them. So I’m not sure it’s a good question, and I’m open to suggestions. You can pitch me, Peter, what do you got?
PETER KORCHNAK: A few ideas, but for now let’s see where the lugers are now.
RYAN SIDHOO: Without giving too much away, you know, there’s many mountains to climb in life. And I think you know each of them has, has climbed in, in, overcome certain things.
You know, Mirza, obviously is still going with luge, and is having success there.
Zlatan, incredibly talented with robotics and engineering, he actually got a scholarship to pursue his master’s in Prague, so he’ll be doing that in the fall.
And Hamza is doing great: he is working full time in Sarajevo, still training luge.
And Senad’s still fighting the good fight. Senad Defends Sarajevo is my next project.
PETER KORCHNAK: After I myself picked up the story of the effort to renovate the track at Trebević here on the podcast, I went deeper into the topic with further reporting, which resulted in the article, “The Twists and Turns at Trebević.” Read it for free at Yugoblok dot com.
RYAN SIDHOO: Wwhen I see the track, I just see potential. I understand why, you know Senad, and Mirza, Hamza, Zlatan, and other people who want to get it rebuilt, you understand the frustration, because you see the potential. You see other countries are hosting World Cups. People are coming to small, you know, not big cities, they’re, they’re coming to smaller cities in the middle of Germany or Sigulda in Latvia, and they’re paying money to stay at hotels. They’re paying money to use the track, it’s, it’s generating a lot of income for the local economy. And you go, Well, why can’t this happen here? And I don’t think I’m the right person to answer that question, but I definitely feel the frustration, and hopeful that one day we will see it return to, you know, having ice, or even at bare minimum, just hosting, you know, summer World Cups, where they’re still sliding on wheels. But I think that it just brings mixed emotions.
You could hear, you could hear the crowd. You could see it like you could, you could feel 84 and you just go, why can’t it be like this again.
And I think locally, everyone knows the potential. And I think the really nice thing about this film is that people outside of Bosnia, outside of Southeast Europe, are learning about it and starting to care about it.
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PETER KORCHNAK: That’s all for this episode of Remembering Yugoslavia, thank you for listening and luging with us.
All guests’ opinions expressed are solely their own; unless otherwise noted they do not express, reflect, or represent the views or opinions of any third party, including myself.
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Outro music courtesy of Robert Petrić.
Interludes courtesy of Sticky Keys.
I am Peter Korchňak.
Ćao!
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