Palio review: An excellent documentary that exposes the corruption and brutality behind the world’s most dangerous horse race, the Palio.
Palio review
Palio is a new documentary chronicling the dangerous, twice-yearly horse racing event in Siena, Italy. This race, which has been running since 1581, takes place with jockeys riding bareback on horses, around a circular, dirt-laden track (the Piazza del Campo) on July 2nd and August 16th of every year. The race is more commonly know to mainstream audiences as the centrepiece of the opening act of Daniel Craig’s second James Bond movie, Quantum Of Solace, but for the inhabitants of the town in which it takes place, it is so much more than that.
Cosima Spender‘s film wonderfully documents one year in the lives of the people involved in this prestigious event; from the district captains and supporters, to the horse trainers jockeys, and showcases the year-long training, planning and indeed plotting that goes into this race, which lasts no longer than 90 seconds. Spender exposes the mass corruption within this ‘sport,’ which must be as harming to the horses involved as it is the jockeys, who get hurtled around each corner of the Piazza, whipped by their peers, and trampled upon if they have the misfortune of hitting the dirt track.
Palio review
The Palio is revealed to be not a sport at all, but a kind of dark, underworld controlled, socially and legally accepted excuse for a horse race. Each district’s captains spend most of the year leading up to the event, plotting as to how to execute their master plan to win the famous Palio, by any means necessary. Money exchanges hands between jockeys to block opponents, with each one not affiliated to any stable; the winners are seen as heroes, and the losers as corrupt, greedy money-grabbers.
Spender wonderfully presents interviews of winners from the seventies, right up until the present day, and seemingly has an access-all-areas pass to proceedings. The documentary is captivating from the off, extremely violent and unrelenting, but at the same time engrossing a shockingly revealing as to how this race still exists to this day. It’s almost as if the inhabitants of this province with a population of little over 50,000, are stuck in a time-warp fulfilling the tradition of this dated, absolutely corrupt blood sport.
As infuriating as the proceedings are, it’s hard not to admire Spender’s work, and Palio document is subject matter excellently. This isn’t playing in many cinemas this weekend, but do try and seek it out if you’re searching for a cinematically shot, well-edited and engrossing documentary. Highly recommended.
Palio review by Paul Heath, September 2015.
Palio is released in key cities on Friday 25th September, 2015.
