Every year, around 16,000 participants enter the world’s largest cross-country ski race, the Vasaloppet in Sweden. Their challenge is to ski 90 grueling kilometers through the snow. Anyone who does not pass the intermediate checkpoints in time is guided off the course by the friendly but unyielding volunteers. Those who fail to make the cut must then continue their journey to the finish in the dreaded “losers bus,” grappling with all the emotions that brings. Fortunately, the bus drivers are in excellent spirits, and there’s cold beer in the fridge.
With wry and gleefully mischievous observations, The Bus of Broken Hearts shows how failure is an art form mastered better by some than by others. While most films focus on the winners, this one brings the whole spectrum of losers into view: from someone who calmly accepts that he has to abandon the race after just ten meters to others who are simply too slow and, with the finish almost in sight, beg to be allowed to continue. A tragicomic portrait of humanity: so fallible, yet utterly undaunted.
Stills
