In Giulio Bertelli’s striking debut feature film Agon, which had its premiere in Venice this week, the 2024 Olympics are swiftly approaching.

We quickly meet three female athletes—a fencer from Brazil, a rifle shooter from Russia, and a judoka from Italy, the latter played by the real-life Olympic gold medalist Alice Bellandi—as they prepare for the Games in Ludoj. There are grisly surgeries to repair injuries (captured in unflinching detail by cinematographer Mauro Chiarello); perky interviews with the rifle shooter, who doubles as a social media influencer; and eerie shots of the fencer that suggest she may be harboring some kind of secret. And despite the feeling, at first, that you’re watching a documentary, you soon realize that not everything is quite as it seems. For one, why h

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