Nadia

Nadia  I was 10 years old when I saw this movie for the first time. That was back in those days before cable TV, so the norm was to show each film only once. A reprise might come next year or so. But this little movie broke a record in my country: It was first aired on a Monday evening, and everybody was talking about it at school the next morning. Then we heard that due to viewers’ positive phone calls to our local TV channel, they will be airing it again on Wednesday. So everybody saw it again two days later. You have to understand what was going on in the head of us children, addicted to sports as we were at that young age, thinking in the possibility of achieving world sport stardom even if you come from some obscure town somewhere in a little known country. Then, by the end of that week, that I remember as one of my major memories from fifth grade, there was once again a TV spot, almost a minute long, this time just showing a Nadia Comaneci’s routine in slow motion, she literally flying, with a triumphant music theme in the background, and the announcer went like this: “This Sunday afternoon, for the first time in the history of Paraguayan TV, and due to overwhelming viewers’ request, a movie will be aired for the third time in the same week”. Still to these days, 24 years later, no other movie was ever aired again three times in the same week on a free air TV channel. That says it all!