100 Meters

Ramón, a driven sales manager in his thirties, is diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Explaining how the disease progresses, his doctor tells him he may not be able to walk a hundred metres within a year. His answer is to start training for an Ironman: 3.8 kilometres of swimming, 180 on the bike, a 42-kilometre run. The film is not interested in sporting achievement. It is interested in negotiating with an illness: he does not get better, he simply races the disease's calendar against his own. The film presents this as stubbornness rather than heroism. The form is the training film: repeated sessions, falls, distances measured. The humour comes from the cantankerous father-in-law who coaches him. The story is true: the film is based on the life of Ramón Arroyo, who completed an Ironman after that diagnosis. Marcel Barrena wrote and directed. Dani Rovira plays Ramón and Karra Elejalde the father-in-law. Who it is for: viewers who like true-story struggle films and Spanish popular cinema. Who it is not for: anyone who resists emotional steering. The film follows the formula all the way and turns the music up for the last half hour.