Ben Sturgulewski's Champions of the Golden Valley is set for its Midwest Premiere at the 2024 Heartland International Film Festival with screenings on Friday, October 18th, at 5:30 pm at the Bottleworks District's Living Room Theaters and on Saturday, October 19, at 12:15pm inside the Landmark Glendale 12. The film had its world premiere at Tribeca earlier this year and has since picked up prizes at Crested Butte Film Festival (Best Doc Feature, Audience Choice), Port Townsend Film Festival (Jury Commendation for Cinematography), Wasatch Mountain Film Festival (Grand Prize, Feature Film Award), and has screened at the likes of Austin Film Fest, DC/DOX, Hot Springs and others. 

Champions of the Golden Valley is set in the high peaks of Bamyan, Afghanistan where young villagers from rival ethnic groups build makeshift wooden skis and come together for a compelling race that we're aware almost immediately is much more than simply a race. 

Centered around Alishah Farhang, an inspirational ski coach with Olympic aspirations and a desire to build bridges and community, Champions of the Golden Valley is a visually compelling film that weaves together a tapestry of sport, community, resilience, and hope. Farhang's work, especially that of the Afghan Ski Challenge, becomes more complex when Afghanistan falls to the Taliban. While Champions of the Golden Valley dances gingerly, at times too gingerly, Sturgulewski's work here is intimate, disciplined, and far more intimate than one typically expects from this type of inspirational sports doc. 

Where Sturgulewski really succeeds is in humanizing Afghanistan as a nation and Afghanis as a people. Far too often, we see the nation only through the lens of conflict. Sturgulewski assures us there is much more to Afghan life and to Afghanis as a people. While Champions of the Golden Valley is in many ways about the building of cultural bridges, that's precisely what the film achieves for its audience as well. It's been a long time since the media has portrayed Afghanistan with any sense of joy - Sturgulewski practically demands that we experience the fullness of a still alive, still vibrant, and still joyful nation. 

This doesn't mean that Sturgulewski turns a blind eye toward the political realities and harsh circumstances in the nation - not at all. Sturgulewski simply chooses, some might say to the film's detriment though I would disagree, to celebrate the human spirit and the ability of that human spirit to find strength in diversity and to transform even when the very laws governing the nation practically outlaw transformation. 

Destined to be a popular selection at Indy's 2024 Heartland International Film Festival and very much a film that captures the Heartland spirit, Champions of the Golden Valley is a necessary film that invigorates, challenges, demands thought, and inspires hope. 

Written by Richard Propes
The Independent Critic