The award-winning director of Senna is to make a film exploring the relationship between Londoners and the Olympic Games since the city was chosen to host them.
As a child, Asif Kapadia played football on Hackney Marshes and attended school close to where the Games will take place, before going on to direct films such as The Warrior.
Much of The Odyssey will be shot from the sky and the images will be combined with archive footage and the voices of dozens of Londoners, from cab drivers to economists.
The film will receive its London premiere on June 25 at the Hackney Picturehouse, along with works by Mike Leigh, Lynne Ramsay, who made We Need To Talk About Kevin, and Streetdance duo Max Giwa and Dania Pasquini.
“It was too good to turn down,” said the 39-year-old director, who won both a Bafta and an Evening Standard British Film Award for Senna.
“We are shooting from helicopters to give a God’s eye view of London, so we will have images on an epic scale with the intimate voices of lots of different people.”
The film covers the period from the day London won the Games on July 6, 2005, through the horror of the terrorist bombs the next day and “all the highs and lows”, even including complaints over what the logo looked like. “My intention is to be humorous as well as serious,” said Kapadia.
The director, who now lives near Finsbury Park, is proud to be joining a line-up of top British directors making half-hour films for the London 2012 Festival, the culmination of the Cultural Olympiad. After being premiered, they will be shown on television.
Kapadia said: “I’m such a fan of sports and I went to school [Homerton House School] where the Olympics are taking place. My family still live five minutes from the Olympic stadium. I have seen that part of London changing hugely.
“But I’ve got even more excited about the Olympics making the film. It’s amazing they’re coming here.”
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The film programme, which is backed by BBC Films, Film4, the BFI and Panasonic, includes the re-release of a remastered Chariots of Fire, restored versions of Alfred Hitchcock classics, and dozens of films by young people.
