There’s a new gymnastics movie named Olga but it’s not about Olga Korbut. The film by Swiss director Elie Grappe is about a Ukrainian gymnast training in Switzerland while her mother is working as a journalist in Ukraine during the Euromaidan.
Olga is played by Anastasia Budiashkina, a former Ukrainian national team member (she represented Ukraine at the 2016 junior European Championships). Other gymnasts in the movie are also portrayed by real-life gymnasts – former Swiss national team members Caterina Barloggio and Thea Brogli and another Ukrainian gymnast Sabrina Rubtsova.
The movie’s script just won the SACD Award at the Cannes Film Festival and the movie’s been nominated for the 2022 Oscar by Switzerland.
Budiashkina talked to Tribuna about playing the main character in the movie:
“The main character and I have very similar lives. She’s brave, patient, and strong. My character has a very difficult choice in front of her which she has to make herself. Olga is far from her mom and it’s very hard for her. It’s my first experience in a movie. I plan to continue developing my acting career. Thank you to the girls and guys who were also a part of this movie.”
“I dedicated 15 years of my life to artistic gymnastics. I’m now in the third year of a coaching degree. I’m really grateful to my coaches who trained me and helped me – Zinaida Gorbach, Olga Kozachenko, Yulia Kayukova, Svetlana Yatsenko, and others. I also thank the Swiss coaches who took me in and helped in the training process.”
“This is a very interesting story. In 2016, we were at a competition in Bern in Switzerland. There were many spectators at the European Championships and Elie [the director] was among them. A week after the competition, two men walk into our gym. They told us that they had been at the competition and saw our team. And now they want to film a move, they told us the story and invited to try out at the casting. There were many different girls but they chose the ones that fit the story the best.”
“Of course, some parts were difficult, while some – not so much. I couldn’t understand a lot. Some things were very strange for me, there were arguments sometimes. But with time, I understood and started embodying what my amazing director planned. I’m really happy that I had such a great team and such an experience. The work on this film was long and very painstaking. I even learned another language, but we managed to deal with all the difficulties. And the movie truly turned out great. It’s fiction but after watching it, many said it seemed more like a documentary.”
“[The Oscar nomination] was very unexpected and great news for me. I’m very happy. It’s a miracle for me. I can’t wait until the Oscars. I hope the stars will be on our side.”
Budiashkina is still competing nationally, she was 16th in the all-around at this year’s Ukrainian Championships.
