David Schweitzer

[84 min, 2008] Feature documentary, directors: Poppy Simpson & Dagmar Tatarczyk
* Nominated for First Appearance award at IDFA, 2008
* Screened at Belfast Film Festival, 2009 
 

A feature documentary following six runners as they prepare to compete in the annual 90km Comrades ‘ultra-marathon’ in South Africa. The film is as much a portrait of the country as it is about the runners themselves.

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I was approached to work on the score for this film film by Poppy Simpson in the autumn of 2007, and looking at some of the early roughcuts I immediately thought it would be a great project. The characters the film focuses on are all unique and interesting personalities, one in particular – a man called Father – being one of the strangest people I’ve ever seen in a documentary! Plus they are all held together by this (to me almost incomprehensible) urge to punish their bodies by running 90km. Some are running to win one of the ten gold medals awards each year, while others are just running to take part.

It was Poppy & Dagmar’s first feature, but I think they pulled off a film which I think is both funny and moving and doesn’t seem to flag at all during its 84 minutes (for which credit also goes to editor Jon Coutts who put in many, many months of hard graft). 

The score is informed to some extent by South African music (I listened to a lot before I began writing), featuring quite a bit of guitar, kalimba, melodica and of course percussion. I also roped in the talented John Greswell to play some viola on the film, as in this clip. 

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