Kelly – Someone Else’s Dreams, the debut feature doc of Estonian director Helen Lõhmus and co-produced by Estonia’s Oree Films and France’s PVS Company, was initially planned as a sports documentary revolving around the record-breaking freestyle skier, Tallinn-born Kelly Sindaru.
However, two years ago the project evolved into a much darker story, Lõhmus revealed. “Kelly decided to go public with her story of [alleged] abuse by her dad and coach. She turned to us to ask if she can finally have a voice and tell her own story.”
At first glance, her story sounded like a fairytale: “A little, talented girl from a mountainless country, with a tight-knit family that was ready to do anything for her success. She very quickly became a national treasure of Estonia, and our biggest hope to win Olympic medals. Sadly, the reality of her life was very different,” said Lõhmus.
It took the production team several months to carry out research work and dig deep into this painful story. During the process, they interviewed a number of Olympic winners, fellow freestylers, coaches and sports psychologists. “What we uncovered was the dark side of this billion dollar youth sports industry. We uncovered that too often athletes don’t know what abuse in sports looks like or what to do when they see it,” Lõhmus underscored.
“In our story, we paint a picture of her success and then peel back layers [revealing] how it was achieved,” she said, adding that at some point in her career Sindaru was a victim of an injury that took her out of her first Olympic Games. After suffering the immense pressure that her father put her under the following season in order to make up for the lost time, Sindaru began to realise that the alleged manipulation during training and the “terror at home” were not normal. “So, she started to fight back, fight for her freedom,” explained Lõhmus.
The director commenced her career in TV in 2004, which spans film, commercials and other digital media platforms. She served as a production manager and production and costume designer for Oleg and Vladimir Presnyakov’s Russia high school drama After School, and also worked in the same capacity for Mattie Do’s Dearest Sister, a Laos-France-Estonia co-production, which was selected to represent Laos at the Academy Awards in 2017.
Towards the end of her EFM presentation of Kelly – Someone Else’s Dreams, Lõhmus disclosed that the team is putting the final touches. “We’re almost done with the edits and currently working on sound design, colour and the animated parts. It will be completed by April 2023,” she confirmed.
The presentation was rounded off by some excerpts from the picture’s rough cut, which showcased several private audio and video recordings and some archive footage borrowed from Estonian pubcaster ERR. These excerpts also featured interviews with Kelly Sindaru’s mother Lilian Talving, her manager Michael Spencer, her best friend Karoliine Holter, international sports judge Rafael Regazzoni, American Olympian Keri Herman, Swiss Olympian Sarah Höfflin, French Olympian Marie Martinod, American freestyler Kristi Leskinen, and Estonian freestyle veterans Oliver Treufeldt and Riho Laast-Laas.
The documentary team is looking for an opening festival and world sales representation.
