You don’t have to be a petrolhead to ‘get’ the legend of Formula One racer Ayrton Senna. Ask any Brazilian – or check out the most enthralling big-screen sports documentary since When We Were Kings.
Screened as part of NZIFF 2011
Senna 2010
Senna’s career on and off the track is traced through voice-over interviews and carefully restored archival material, much of it never seen before. — BG
“Fans of Formula One racing will know at once that this is a film about the legendary Brazilian Ayrton Senna, considered by some to be the greatest driver who ever lived. A boy genius behind the wheel, capable of pushing cars beyond their capacity, Senna won 33 races and three Grand Prix titles before dying in a crash in 1994 at age 34… Senna is bursting with great racing sequences, many dealing with his bitter rivalry with French champion Alain Prost. But what makes this film so riveting is the remarkable personality of the man himself. Someone who just flat-out loved to drive, Senna was a purist who had complete disdain for the politics that had to be played in the cliquish Formula One world… A philosophical mystic with a jewel thief’s nerves and a poet’s sensitivity (and good looks), Senna was an altogether remarkable human being.” — Kenneth Turan, LA Times
“The footage is tremendous… Races we’ve watched and rewatched a hundred times seem fresh and different as new camera angles of some of the sport’s defining moments come to life on a gigantic screen and in soaring, screaming surround sound… From drivers’ briefings to personal home movies, the film provides a side to Senna and to the world of Formula One that genuinely has never really been seen before.” — Will Buxton, SpeedTV.com