Wonderful Losers. A Different World

2017

Documentary

71min

Behind the elite teams of world cycling there are unknown fighters, true heroes of cycling who crash, get up and go again. An odyssey that reveals an unusual look at the “wonderful losers”, those who sacrifice their professional careers for the glory of their teammates. What motivates them to continue pedalling in absolute anonymity in one of the most physically and psychologically demanding sports? We follow these “Sancho Panza” of professional cycling for 7 years and discover the so far invisible life of these men, without whom the professional teams would be without podium or trophy.

Awarded the Best Feature Documentary at the 33rd Warsaw Film Festival (Poland)
Grand-Prix for Best Documentary Film and Audience Award at the 24th Minsk IFF Listapad (Belarus)
Alpe Adria Cinema Award – Best Documentary Film at Trieste IFF 29th edition
Lithuanian Filmmakers Union award – Best Lithuanian film
Lithuanian Silver Crane 2018 National awards – Best Documentary, Best Composer, Audience award

Co-producer

Studio Nominum (Lithuania)

Stefilm (Italy)

DOK Mobile (Switzerland)

Associate Directors (Belgium)

Planet Korda (Ireland)

Dearcan Media (England)

Director

Arūnas Matelis

Script

Arūnas Matelis

Edita Pučinskaitė

Cinematographer

Mark Olexa

Ivars Zviedris

Valdis Celmins

Audrius Kemežys

Simone Rivoire

Giordano Bianchi

Giacomo Becherini

Paolo Beniti

Vincent O’Callaghan

Аrūnas Matelis

Editor

Mirjam Jegorov

Gatis Belogrudovs

Producers

Arūnas Matelis

Stefano Tealdi

Mark Daems

Jeremiah Cullinane

Uldis Cekulis