El Ciclista
2025 · 3m · España
Directed by Manuel Ruiz Fuster
Genres: biography, historical, sports
Tones: contemplative, dark, melancholic
The story of cyclist Tom Simpson, who died in 1967 during stage 13 of the Tour de France on Mont Ventoux, four kilometers from the finish — and of his decision, after collapsing once, to have his team put him back on the bike.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
Everyone expects the tragic athlete story to genuflect at the altar of noble suffering, but Fuster seems more interested in the grotesque mechanics of self-destruction than redemption—which is either brave or pointless, and I'm genuinely unsure which.
A restrained meditation on will and witness that understands the Tour de France as both historical artifact and moral crucible; the film's refusal to sensationalize Simpson's death speaks to a filmmaker conversant in sports cinema's entire tradition, from Vigo forward.
The decision to show Simpson's collapse and reinsertion as a loop—repeating the moment of choice rather than dramatizing it—transforms what could be maudlin into something architecturally precise and devastating on a micro-budget.