Go Go Kosovo

Go Go Kosovo is the untold, unique access, character led story of the Kosovo Olympic Team and their 22-year struggle from a brutal war to winning an Olympic gold medal, told by ordinary people who have done extraordinary things. The film is about an unrelenting dream, that is built on a desire to be recognised and a fight to not accept the situation you find yourself in. It’s a once in a lifetime story of a small nation led by one man battling against bureaucracy, apathy and global politics.

The documentary will reflect the warm nature of the Kosovo people, the underdog spirit and joy at becoming an equal in sporting terms. The conflict and war has its place in our story to understand the motivations but this is about what happens next, the film does not delve into the why of a war, but more what it does to the real people drawn up into it, and what happens to those people next. We want this film to have an impact that resonates with an audience base who loves an underdog story and the power of sport to unite people.

We cover nearly 20 years of timeline in this film, so archive footage plays a huge role in bringing to life the stories we are told. Lets see them, not just hear them. Also, having personal archives from our main characters, makes it more personal, makes it real, makes it their film, rather than just generic archive. An example being the Olympic Games opening ceremony. We see it through the enthusiastic wide eyes of Avni, our loveable cycling coach who is about to experience one of the best moments of his life, he has a GoPro attached to his arm from the moment he sets off for Rio, amassing 20GB of home movies, rather than generic opening footage we have seen before - it add’s emotional weight to it, with love and warmth. Through Avni’s eyes the audience can experience what it feels like to walk out at the Olympics!

Overall, there is a lot of personal archive we want to include that shows Besim’s journey from karate enthusiast and Bruce Lee fan to leading the Kosovo team to Rio to see his life’s dream come true. What you currently see is only a flavour. We also want to treat it, whether with animation techniques, bringing to life the photographs or accentuate the key narrative points in the story - an example being the volume of letters written by Besim. He wrote hundreds to every country so we want to bring these to life using punchy, dynamic animations of type. This helps keep the tone lighter, even when talking about dry subjects like sporting administration.

The music should reflect the new generation of Kosovo. It should have swagger and purpose to it, while using music from Kosovo. This isn’t time for violin’s for these officials, coaches and athletes. It’s a time for inspiration, going that extra mile, adding fight and attitude to everything they are doing. We want to stay away from the traditional folk music, as it creates a stereotype feeling. This is Rita Ora, this is Dua Lipa, It is music of a new generation that embraces western culture.

While this story has an obvious start, middle and end, from the outbreak of the Yugoslav war in the early 90’s to Majlinda’s final at Rio 2016, we can do something really interesting with the story structure and how we weave storylines, dreams and expectations together. The story expands out as we meet the athletes who are attempting to get there, watch as some fail and watch as others get their date with destiny. By understanding cause and effect, we want to show how the action of a single man - Besim, became a movement, which resulted in an explosion of sports in Kosovo and inspired a next generation of athletes to train and go to Rio. The story gets bigger as we move through it, monumentum is created as we hurdle towards the final.

But the end mirrors the start, as all fall at their own personal endpoints, like the start, one is left. We watch the action of a single person fighting for something, something bigger than themselves. Over 4 mins, we watch Majlinda Kelmedi, a young woman with the weight of a nation on her shoulders, fight to win Olympic gold. We see the fight from numerous angles, from HD match footage, to phone footage in the crowd all the way to a bar in Majlinda’s hometown in Kosovo as a country watches on as she attempts to win a gold medal that will define and symbolise everything and everyone connected to Kosovo.