Chasing Great

The documentary takes up the rugby player Richie McCaw. The account runs his life story and his final season as an All Black inside one another. The camera is with him at training, in the dressing room and on match days. The film dwells on determination and mental toughness. McCaw still sees himself as an ordinary man from a small town in New Zealand. The account carries that view without disturbing it, and the language of admiration is the film’s own. How a sportsman ends his career sits at the centre of the story. The hundred and five minutes are given to a single season. The New Zealand documentary by Justin Pemberton and Michelle Walshe was completed in 2016.