This week we’re excited to present a conversation from this year’s edition of New Directors/New Films with Agon director Giulio Bertelli. Agon is now streaming exclusively on MUBI.

In Agon, three athletes—including one played by a real-life gold medalist in women’s judo—prepare for a fictional Olympiad in this elemental study of athletic discipline from first-time feature director Giulio Bertelli.  Bertelli shows how the athletes’ preparation is dominated by technologies, from arthroscopic surgery footage to simulators to video games, suggesting the dehumanization of vulnerable bodies inside the global behemoth that is modern organized sport.