Review of Zion

Here we have "Zion", a 12-minute (10 without credits), documentary short film from 2018 and one of Netflix's most recent releases. This one won director Floyd Russ some awards already, and even more nominations, and we will see how it fares once Oscar season moves closer. Anyway, this is the story of the man in the title, a disable African American who is pursuing a career as a wrestler. Against all odds as he has no legs. There are references about his life at a foster home, about his difficult childhood etc. stuff you always see in documentaries like these, but sadly it never feels like going a lot below the surface. Instead it shows us arranged scenarios of discrimination that really feel painful to watch because they are so staged and the over-the-top soundtrack isn't helping either. It is a bit of a pity as with Paralympics etc. around, it is interesting to see a severely disabled man succeed to some extent in his sport against healthy competitors. So in terms of the premise, there was definitely the opportunoty to turn this into a much better film than it eventually became. It all feels so arranged, so pseudo-emotional and so scripted, especially the actual competition scene with the coach's crying, that really could have been a positive highlight, but instead it is the opposite. So yeah I am not impressed by this one. Hoped it would be better as I know it from Netflix. Gotta give it a thumbs-down and not recommend checking it out. Zion certainly would have deserved more attention to detail.