Heartbreaking.

I somehow missed this story in the news when it happened, so went in without expectations. But it doesn’t take a genius to figure out where this headed when one key character’s present-day interview tape is missing.

Harley Windsor, from Australia, and Katya Alexandrovskaya, fromRussia, were a pairs figure skating phenomenon for a few years in the late 2010s. Katya’s father died in 2015 and in 2016, at the age of sixteen, she moved to Australia by herself in order to train with Harley. The two performed fantastically together, but the pressure for Katya was high: she missed her late father, she missed her mother in Moscow, and the language barrier in Australia kept her isolated and dependent on her Russian-speaking coaches, with whom she lived for those first years. Harley admits that he didn’t particularly like Katya at first, and her lack of English prevented them from really bonding.

The tension in this documentary climbed so high I found myself looking for reasons to take a break. Oh, better go water the plants now and fold all that laundry. Better get started on some dinner prep right now.

Things come to a head in 2019. Harley and her coaches had been aware of her troubled drinking patterns for years, but apparently did not know the extent of it. The alcohol finally catches up with her, lands her in the hospital, and her resultant diagnoses (liver damage, kidney damage, epilepsy brought on by drinking) are not compatible with a career in figure skating. The pair splits, and Katya stays in Moscow, struggling to find meaning in her new life. She would die by suicide the next year.

It is so difficult to cope with major failure.

This documentary doesn’t seek to lay blame for Katya’s death at the foot of any one person, including Katya herself. It seems there were many points at which her story could have been nudged into a slightly different direction by any of the major players in her life. I have only sympathy for Katya.

If you enjoy darkness, you’ll enjoy this documentary. Only kind of kidding; I still feel a little depressed about the whole thing.