The Track

It’s part sports doc, part coming-of-age story, and part post-war survival tale.

Two teenage boys. One shattered Olympic track. And a country still trying to rebuild itself.

Jason Kottke of Kottke.org recommended this one. It’s part sports doc, part coming-of-age story, and part post-war survival tale.

Trailer for “The Track”

You Can’t Make This Sh!t Up

• The boys trained on an abandoned Olympic luge track that had been used as a sniper position during the war. You can still see bullet holes in the concrete curves.
• Bosnia has over 50% youth unemployment. While these teens are chasing the Winter Olympics, many of their friends are trying to leave the country for work in Germany or Austria.

Watch “The Track”

You can stream “The Track” on Prime Video.

Ratings:

• My Rating: 91/100
• IMDB Rating: 8.6/10
• Rotten Tomatoes: not yet rated

Director’s Note: The film was shot over several transformative years, which gives it real emotional weight. We see training montages. We see heartbreak, street fights, family pressure, and the slow drift that happens when adulthood forces different choices.

Release Date: 2025

My Review of “The Track”

The Setup

Mirza, Zlatan, and Hamza are teenagers in Sarajevo with a strange dream: luge. Not soccer. Not basketball. Luge.

Their “home track” was built for the 1984 Winter Olympics. Back then, Sarajevo was the pride of Yugoslavia. Now the track sits in ruins on Mount Trebević—covered in graffiti, cracked from neglect, and scarred by gunfire from the siege of Sarajevo.

Coach Senad Omanovic becomes the glue. He believes sport can give these boys purpose in a country where jobs are scarce and politics are toxic. He pushes them through brutal dry-land training, makeshift sled repairs, and endless fundraising battles.

More Highlights from the Doc

• The boys balance school, girlfriends, and family drama while training in freezing conditions with outdated equipment.
• Their coach, Senad Omanovic, spent five years fighting political corruption and bureaucracy just to get parts of the track usable again. He had to beg officials for funding in a country still divided by ethnic tension.
• The 1984 Sarajevo Games once symbolized unity for Yugoslavia. Less than a decade later, the same mountains became front lines of a brutal war.
• One of the boys works side jobs because his family can’t afford proper gear. A competition-level luge sled can cost thousands of dollars.
• The film shows how ethnic divisions still shape daily life in Bosnia, even affecting sports funding.
• There are moments when it feels like one of them might make a serious Olympic run—until injuries, money, and reality step in.
• Friends leave for Germany in search of stable jobs. Not everyone stays to chase the dream.

Lesser-Known Details from the Doc

• The Sarajevo luge track was once considered one of the fastest in the world in 1984. During the war, it became a fortified artillery position because of its elevation above the city.
• Parts of the track were cleared by volunteers, not the government.
• Coach Omanovic acts as mentor, father figure, and sometimes therapist to the boys.
• The boys’ friendship shifts over time. The film avoids a neat Hollywood ending.

Wrap Up:

“The Track” shows what it means to dream big in a place still healing from war. If you like sports docs with real stakes, this one’s worth your time.

Thanks for reading!
Heather Fenty, Guest Writer, Daily Doc