Olympic Halftime

The film explores the impact of the Olympic urbanism in several cities across Europe and Asia, that have already hosted the event and are preparing for another round or have even hosted the Games for the second time. What is the impact of the Olympics on these cities and their lands? What are pros and cons of organizing massive sports competitions? Beside Europe we will also visit Asia and see two different approaches to organizing the Games, and their architectonic gestalt and public space interventions - in Beijing and Tokyo, cities with experience of organization the Olympics, that are now in the "half-time" of preparations of new Olympic constructions for upcoming Games. We will roam around the ruins of the Olympic stadiums and observe them through a young Chinese photographer and urban explorer Jiang, whose passion is documenting abandoned and decaying places. We will follow the urbanization of cities, which, after a three-week feast, when sportspeople from all over the world leave the town, the venues are often left unused or, at best, they are still in use, or find a different purpose. Is there any permanent use for the gigantic Olympic structures? Or should the concrete and aluminium structures be blown up like in Atlanta? Is organising the Olympic sustainable in urban terms? What meaning do the megalomaniac structures have for boosting the national prestige? We will set European views and controversies in contrast with two Asian Olympic superpowers - China and Japan where the financial costs of organising the Olympics grew steeply, multyplying many times over and still growing. We will point out the impact of huge investments on prestigious buildings, where losses often rise up to millions of dollars. Does the shift of the Olympics towards the economically prosperous countries in the Far East (Japan, China and Korea) foreshadow a new world order where the Euro-American civilisation and its humanist and democratic values are losing ground?