"Harly & Katya" a documentary that is sheer poetry in motion

Review by Antony Cirocco

Film Title: Harley & Katya

Dir: Selina Miles

Release Date: 01-02-2022

“Harley & Katya” by Selina Miles is a feature-length documentary. It’s a well-funded documentary (by Australian standards). It’s a sports documentary on the surface, but it goes much further than that; it goes deep into the world of figure skating and into the culture of competition surrounding the sport. 

Harley, from Blacktown in Sydney, is struggling to find a matched partner; his Russian-born coaches, experts in figure skating, find him a good fit, Katya. What follows is a journey that leads to Russia and around the world as the two of them, Harley and Katya climb the world rankings. 

"Harley & Katya", official movie poster

Both Harley and Katya knew nothing about each other's homelands, and when Katya decides to come to Australia to train, she is not sure if it is Austria or Australia. This is not a love story, but you will most likely fall in love with Harley and Katya, who quickly become a figure skating powerhouse. 

This film is great because it pulls apart the sport, the crossed cultures and the personal intrigues of coaches looking to make it big in the International Figure Skating scene, but when it starts to unravel, the film goes to the next level.

This is a historical documentary, but it’s recent history. It’s newsworthy of sorts, but the trials and tribulations of figure skating champions, let's face it, is a first-world problem. Alone, there is not a lot to note about this story, but let it sit for a while, this film broods emotion, keep listening, keep watching, it gets better and better and starkly more tragic. Here in lies the beauty of this film, it’s expertly structured, a slow burn that builds and builds, it’s excellent storytelling. 

The film takes the director and editor deep into archival territory, and it’s beautifully treated. The archival is modern, mostly digital video and stills, knitted together expertly. A portion of the interview material is in Russian, but this just adds to the flavour of the story; it’s textured and rich. It’s great to watch.

The connection to Harley’s family here grounds the film; they are genuine and bring us to care about Harley… and Katya. Katya’s family was not available for the film as they were in Russia. Katya’s coaches are interviewed, but much of those interviews appear to be archival. This doesn’t detract from the Director's performance; in fact, the way the Director managed and delivered these interviews in an effort to deliver a balanced story is to be commended. 

The interview setups for the film are bleak and glumly lit, reflecting the socioeconomic position of Harley’s and Katya’s families. The interview shoots are consistent and applied to all the interviewee’s journalists, and figure skating administrators alike. The bleak, glum stylistic choices speak to other parts of the story; it’s a great choice, not like any other sport documentary.

The edit is fluid and drives engagement in the story, and the music is beautifully composed and drives the tension and beauty without overdoing it. The sound mix also makes this an enjoyable and engaging film.

There is a First Nations family in this film, who have a voice, led by Harley’s Parents. There are not enough First Nations stories on our screens, and it’s great to see Harley’s family treated with such dignity and respect. The difficulty here is representing Katya’s family. The Russian family connection required a lot of sensitivity; only Katya’s mother was available to speak, and as the story will show, a seated interview with her or Katya’s father was not going to be possible considering all the circumstances. Harley and Katya’s coaches feature in the documentary, but they are not her parents. Symbolically, it feels that way at times, and if you weren’t paying close attention, you might miss the fact that they are her coaches, whom she lived with, were not really a substitute for caring parents. This misunderstanding could be due to the absence of the Katya’s mother and father, but listen closely and the challenge of having either of Katya’s parents will become clearer later in the film, tragically so. 

Could there have been more done to secure an interview with Andrei Pachin, their coach, maybe, but with a long-running disagreement in play, this would not have been easy, most likely impossible. As Harley says, “it was a shit show” referring to the situation with their coach.

There are underlying themes of resilience here, and tragedy, that will reward the viewer and challenge them at the same time. It’s a beautifully crafted story that educates and changes, and intrigues the audience. It’s an emotional sport that is lyrical and poetic; this film is much the same. Harley and Katya are poetry in motion here, and combined with the score, this opens the door to emotional factual storytelling.

There is some symbolism of a man bent over an angle grinder in a dimly lit workshop, sharpening skates, which is perfectly timed to a shift in narrative, which is most fitting and demonstrates the visual richness of the storytelling techniques of Miles.

This film was nominated for numerous awards, ultimately winning an International Emmy Award for Best Sports Documentary in 2024. I enjoyed how this sports documentary de-cloaked the veneer of Olympic athletes as performing for their supper and going to extreme lengths to pursue their dream. I also enjoyed the personal stories of Harley and Katya. It’s hard to find shortcomings in this film. It’s excellent cinema. It’s excellent drama.

This is a beautiful film, it’s a deep, layered character study of Harley and Katya, and the messy world of International Figure Skating, it’s beautiful and complex. 

The legacy of this film is not a lasting impression of the perils of figure skating, it’s about the potential lost if athletes are not cared for and placed in the right hands, with people and coaches who nurture and care for them.

It’s well worth watching, 4 out of 5 stars.

Review by Antony Cirocco

Check out the trailer -