En Boucle : une année avec Taky Marie-Divine Kouamé

The velodrome track is there every day, but the circumstances in which an athlete faces it change. En Boucle : une année avec Taky Marie-Divine Kouamé, a documentary by Brune Maubert, follows the French cyclist through the season leading up to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Training and competition alternate with life at home, travel and conversations with those who share her journey.

The film begins with the friendship between the director and Marie-Divine, which predates the filming. Brune decides to accompany her during her preparations and also appears within the story. Their relationship becomes part of the everyday life being documented: alongside sporting commitments are conversations, meals and moments spent away from competition.

The memory of the world title accompanies the beginning of a year filled with expectations. The work involves preparations, repeated exercises, waiting at trackside and international travel. The film follows these activities through different settings, from sporting facilities to the rooms where the cyclist stays during her journeys, placing the competition calendar alongside the rhythms of everyday life.

As the season progresses, difficulties with performance and tensions in relationships with coaches and teammates emerge. Conversations address confidence, personal expectations and the importance attached to results. Marie-Divine speaks about doubt and loneliness, while others from her sporting environment also contribute. Preparing for Paris provides the context in which these experiences are described and discussed.

The repetition suggested by the title concerns both training and subjects that recur in conversation. The documentary places movement around the track alongside periods of waiting and the athlete’s words. Races, journeys and private life make up the period observed, in which the desire to reach a goal coexists with the work required to keep pursuing it.

The film is written and directed by Brune Maubert and produced by L’Étoile Noire. Laura Diaz is the editor and ZAATAR composed the original music; Brune Maubert and Nicolas Desaintquentin are credited for cinematography. Filmed in French, En Boucle follows a sporting season and the relationships within it across 52 minutes.