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Home Entertainment Movie

With ‘Agon,’ Giulio Bertelli Deconstructs the Mythology of the Sports Hero

August 29, 2025
in Movie, News
With ‘Agon,’ Giulio Bertelli Deconstructs the Mythology of the Sports Hero
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“If we talk about filmmaking—instead of the reasons I made this film, the motivations behind the story, or my biography—at the end of the day it’s because I’m interested in the language of movies and moving it forward, if only slightly. In this film, I focused on identity, and ideas about our attention and reason that I hope the audience will relate to.”

This is how Giulio Bertelli summarizes his first experience as a director, after two hours of conversation and reflection. His debut film, Agon, will be presented in Venice on August 29. There’s already much interest in this independent film, some due to the fact that 35-year-old Bertelli is the second son of Miuccia Prada and Patrizio Bertelli—though he chooses to stay out of the family business as he pursues his own interests. Filmmaking was his childhood dream, and Agon embodies everything he has learned about the art.

The film tells the story of three female athletes—specializing in judo, fencing, and shooting—as they prepare to participate in the 2024 Ludoj Games. These are a fictional Olympics for a film that is difficult to categorize. At first glance, it feels like a documentary; the sports narrative has an original visual and aesthetic structure, blurring reality and fiction while exploring universal themes like competition and performance. It is a conceptual and allegorical film, “at times dreamlike and absurd,” says Bertelli. He describes it as “techno realism.”

“Maybe it won’t appeal to everyone, as I would have liked. But I have the feeling that young viewers especially will understand it,” he says. One senses that Bertelli shares the outlook of those young viewers. “Maybe it’s because I don’t have a long history [in film]. I haven’t worked in cinema, and my point of view has remained that of my 20s.”

Vanity Fair: How did you come to make this film?

Giulio Bertelli: I’ve thought about making films since high school. There was a moment when I realized that there was an individual director behind a film, and that interested me more than the actors. I understood that cinema was the graphic or visual manifestation of a thought, an interpretation of the world going on around you. Then I went to study in England, at the Architectural Association, which is a more theoretical university.

I started to focus on the relationship between filmmaking, design, and architecture, but I never thought I would become an architect. At that time I had the urge to write about a lot of subjects, and then life took an unexpected turn. I had other passions as well, and I wanted to get away from an urban and maybe even an intellectual context.

So you chose the sea?

Sailboats. I was interested in working with my hands and the technological developments in a world that I was familiar with, for family reasons. It started as a hobby in my 20s and then became a professional career at the highest level for about 10 to 12 years. Not only with Luna Rossa [the Italian sailing team that has competed in America’s Cup events since 2000]. I also worked with international teams from Australia, the Netherlands, France, and Italy. I also worked with veteran sailor Giovanni Soldini. Then I opened my own research and design studio, which applied its work to different fields. I didn’t start working on this film until 2018.

I already had several scripts, and this story seemed like the best fit because it was initially supposed to be an animated film. However, when I started preliminary conversations with Mubi, we realized that animation didn’t make much sense. So I thought of creating a hybrid film—part animation and part live action.

The three different sports in the film are all related to combat, and Agon begins with a quote associating sports with war. What is the message of the quote?

It is from an 1892 manifesto by Pierre de Coubertin, a cofounder of the International Olympic Committee. When I address a topic, I investigate the connections between its historical background, its contemporary context, and its potential evolution. The 1896 Olympics opened with a shooting event—de Coubertin’s sport—which used to be simply part of army officers’ training and practice for combat. Later, it became a competitive sport. I am attracted to the relationship between sport and a certain abstraction of violence. It is only in the 20th century that the perception of what sport was meant to be changed, but it has a very clear origin, which is linked to the history of war and combat.

In the collective imagination, sport is built around discipline, redemption, victory. In Agon, the emphasis instead is on effort, renunciation, loneliness. Why was it important to tell that story?

Because that is ninety percent of sports, and it’s a story that’s not told. I have nothing against the mythology of the sports hero. But I am contrarian by nature! I’m interested in looking at things from a different angle. Plus, having been a professional athlete, I knew the subject.

The only real athlete among the lead actors is Alice Bellandi, a world champion and Olympic gold medalist in Paris 2024.

When we decided that the athletes would be portrayed by actors, it was important that they be believable. I knew that when it comes to fencing, I could have a stand-in behind the mask. But I had to find a former or professional athlete for the role of the judoka. I honestly had lower expectations for that role, but we managed to get Alice Bellandi, who I knew nothing about at the time. I met her for the first time in September 2023 at Rome’s Fiumicino airport, and within 10 minutes we knew that we would work together. She was preparing for the Olympics, but we were able to shoot in December. On her first day of shooting, which was also my first day as a director, you could feel the tension from the producers. But after that day, everyone knew that this was all going to go smoothly.

Could you have built this film around three male athletes?

I don’t think so. The subject for the movie first emerged in a conversation with two friends. We were wondering, Who could be a Joan of Arc figure today—on a political and moral level? And that inspired the fencing story. Then, playing with this idea, we tried to identify other characters from history. Alice is Cleopatra, with her unique relationship with her body and her focus on herself. The fencing athlete evokes the Russian writer and soldier Nadezhda Durova, who as a girl leaves her father’s home and becomes an officer in the czar’s army. She runs away and enlists as a man in another regiment, cutting her hair and binding her chest. She eventually becomes an important officer. She’s a person with a secret double life. I felt the narrative was clearer when built around three women in their 20s who ultimately fail to do what they want. We can all relate to that.

In the film, one of the athletes is targeted by the media. What is your relationship with social media?

I don’t have any [accounts] because I’m a private person. I’ve never felt the need for it. I don’t understand the need to know what other people are doing, or to share what I am doing on a daily basis. I know that it can create big problems. Some impulsive reactions on social media have destroyed people’s lives. It’s not good that there is a constant worry around possibly saying something that could be used against you.

Technology is another major player in the film. Do you think AI will have a big impact on the way filmmaking is done in the future?

I think it will. I’ll preface this by saying that I wanted to approach my story the way that all the great filmmakers who have inspired me would. I wanted to follow the same process: working with producers, writing the screenplay, appearing in festivals, marketing the film…. I’m at the beginning of my journey, and in the future I know I will continue to make films. That is, I’ll make works with images and movement. But I don’t know in what format or on what platform. I care about the result for the viewer. AI is a tool you can use if it is relevant in your artistic process, and there is nothing wrong with using it. I will never criticize it simply because of a feeling that the industry needs to be protected.

Who are those great directors who have inspired you?

Definitely the directors of the political and social cinema of Italy in the 1970s. Elio Petri above all. When I was 16 years old, I saw Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion, and that was the first time I thought, That’s the film I want to make. It’s a commercial film, but with a social message. And then Italian comedy, [Mario] Monicelli’s comedy. Agon is a hard and sad film, but part of me would like to go to another space and make comedies. Among foreign directors, I would say Werner Herzog, for his sense of adventure when it comes to the process of making films; Steven Soderbergh for his mastery of the medium, as he does so many different things, but is always true to himself. And Wong Kar-wai’s works filled my imagination as a kid.

It sometimes feels like the world is immersed in nostalgia, but you seem to be focused more on the future.

Nostalgia doesn’t feel right to me. And there is a mistaken overlap between poetry and nostalgia. I believe in a romantic and poetic aspect of our existence, but I like to add elements that might make a friend watching the film ask: Is this thing real, or is it something invented for the film? Are they already making it now? They are small projections into the near future instead of imagining what the year 2200 will be like.

In the end, Agon turns out to be a film about failure that can happen against your every intention or action. Has that ever happened to you?

Sure. But for me, failure is related to not being able to do what you want to do. In the Italian language, it always sounds derogatory.

The perception of failure is different across generations. It brings to mind Benedetta Pilato, the swimmer who finished fourth at the Paris Olympics and was happy with where she placed—and then fencer Elisa Di Francisca’s controversial reaction. She couldn’t understand Pilato’s reaction to not winning a medal.

It’s interesting that you bring up that episode, because there is dialogue in the film that addresses that issue. In part, I agree with Di Francisca—sports have rules, and the goal is to win.

I don’t want to be misinterpreted, but I find it wrong and curious that contemporary society and its media establishment simultaneously advance two irreconcilable narratives. On the one hand, we mythologize champions—from Schumacher to Michael Jordan—with Netflix series describing how they would do anything to win. And at the same time, there’s a series to defend and justify Simone Biles’s decision to withdraw from the Olympics due to mental health issues. So regardless of our takes on those particular situations, it seems to me there is some hypocrisy with respect to the issue.

Anyone who has been in sports knows that the important thing is not merely to participate, it’s to win. It doesn’t mean that if you lose, your life is ruined—but you think about how to improve yourself and your performance. If you make sacrifices like that for years, it’s because you want to be the best.

You come from a high-achieving family. How did you handle that?

It’s always been a good thing, a stimulus. I’ve had great opportunities both with the people I grew up with and other people I’ve met. There was no negative competition. It was always a healthy relationship.

What did you learn from your parents?

So much. I have a very close relationship with my mother. There was never any possibility of her sitting me down and teaching me in a direct way. Instead, I absorbed everything I learned from her. I grew up with this idea that there is overlap between one’s work and one’s life: Your life is a manifestation of your work. And you should try to do the things that you love. I learned it is normal to commit and then commit again to your work.

You also seem to have absorbed a certain aesthetic vision from your mother. What is your relationship with fashion and her world?

I understand the importance of fashion. Sometimes the industry can be frivolous and superficial, but I don’t think everyone in it is. My mother isn’t, for example. And I can’t find any reason to think that, say, an architect who designs the places we live in should be viewed as more important than the people who, over the history of humanity, have designed the things we put on every day to protect ourselves and communicate ideas about ourselves to the world.

Have your parents seen the film?

Yes. My father would like to see it again in a movie theater. He found it very hard, but he liked it. So did my mother, but she’s a mom.

And are you now ready to be exposed to the judgment of the industry and the broader public?

I don’t have any major problems with that. I’ve always had a complex relationship with my family, which explains in part my reserve. I think I’m a person who works hard, but it’s still obvious that I’ve had some breaks that others have not. So I understand why they might have some preconceptions about me. It’s something I’ve had to deal with throughout my life. I almost have a sense of guilt, and who knows if I’ll ever get over that—as my mother was able to do. In Venice and at movie theaters, however, they will judge the film, and that’s the beauty of it. Some people will love it; some will dislike it. Indifference would be the worst response.

Original story in VF Italia. It has been translated and lightly edited from the original Italian.

The post With ‘Agon,’ Giulio Bertelli Deconstructs the Mythology of the Sports Hero appeared first on Vanity Fair.

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