The runner

17 MINUTES

Why Darius is testing mind and body to run 100 miles in the cold

The Runner follows Darius Sam, a 20-year-old from the Lower Nicola First Nation in Canada, as he takes on one of the most intense and exhausting endurance tests imaginable: a 100-mile run. The dramatic landscape of Lower Nicola in British Columbia, which is located on Nlaka’pamux traditional territory, proves an apt setting for such an imposing undertaking. The Syrian Canadian filmmaker Amar Chebib captures Sam’s journey with cinematic grandeur, documenting him as he runs from dusk till dawn and across snow-capped mountains, pine forests and vast open cattle plains.

Sam’s intensive training and the culminating run are inspired by his desire to raise awareness around addiction and mental illness, and a personal attempt to grapple with how these issues have affected his life. The story of his run unfolds alongside windows into his past, which detail how his world has been shaped by the fetal alcohol syndrome he was born with, early adoption, and later struggles with suicidal depression. Through these parallel narratives, Chebib illustrates how ultramarathon running became essential to Sam’s survival and personal growth, forcing him to fight through lingering feelings of ‘unworthiness’. ‘I invented this person,’ Sam reflects – a moving testament to the distances people can go, both physically and mentally, when supported by community and armed with discipline, and even after a lifetime of ‘feeling lost’.

Director: Amar Chebib

Producer: Haley Morin

Explore more

Illustration of a room with a plant on a table, soft coloured walls and a window with curtains.
POETRY

‘You are me; I am you’ – a trans poet’s evocative message to her former self

Video by On Being

A person with long blonde hair in a beanie and coat, facing away from the camera, wearing a brown backpack in a blurred busy street.

How to anticipate and cope with mania

If you have bipolar disorder, you can learn to play an active role in managing your symptoms and live a fulfilling life

by Kim Pape & Sheri Johnson

A person with a backpack hiking through a dense forest towards a rocky riverbank.

In the hole

A metaphor for depression became a catalyst, and I started to reinvent my approach to suffering

by Tasha Eichenseher

Illustration of a scoreboard at Barclays Center showing a man with raised arms, surrounded by an arena.

A dancing NBA superfan on the joy of spaces that let us go wild and get weird

Directed by Mickey Duzyj

A group of people outdoors looking serious, with one woman wiping her eyes in the centre. Trees and buildings in background.

The hidden calculations that determine whether you will cry

We think of tears as an overflow of emotion, but an evolutionary lens shows they’re a rational form of social signalling

by Daniel Sznycer & Debra Lieberman

A person gazing out a train window at a yellow field and cloudy sky, with a table and a closed laptop in view.

How much you ‘body-wander’ could affect your mental health

Some people tune into bodily sensations while daydreaming, others don’t – with implications for anxiety, depression and ADHD

by Leah Banellis

Illustration of a simple cartoon figure with a bob haircut wearing a green crop top and red skirt on a light background.

Growing pains, bras, size, sex – a group of women get candid about all things boobs

A film by Subarna Dash and Vidushi Gupta

Close-up photo of an elderly man with a beard wearing a black cap, lying in a hospital bed, looking content.

After four decades in prison, Big D contemplates the brave new world that awaits him

Directed by Laura Tejero Núñez