EIFF 2009: Big River Man

Hard drinking and overweight, Martin Strel is an unlikely athlete. Yet the 53 year old Slovenian is a legend in the world of endurance swimming and a hero to his countrymen. After epic swims of the Mississippi and Yangtze rivers he sets his sights on the greatest of them all: the Amazon. But as Strel, accompanied by a motley team led by his son Borut, sets off down the river we soon realize that this journey will take us into darker territory than mere adventure. Worn down by the isolation and the dangers of the swim, the already taciturn Strel recedes into himself until he becomes, in his son’s words, “so insane we don’t consider him a person”. At times, Big River Man’s frenetic direction, lurching from whimsy to bombast, threatens to distract us from this compelling story, but its images of the enigmatic Strel dwarfed by the immense, roiling waters of the Amazon are unforgettable