Rebels on the ball
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Rebels on the ball |
| Original title | Les rebelles du foot |
| Country of production | France Bosnia and Herzegovina Brazil Chile Tunisia |
| original language | French |
| Publishing year | 2012 |
| length | 92 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Gilles Perez, Gilles Rof |
| occupation | |
Rebels on the ball (original title: Les rebelles du foot ) is a documentary film that is told by the former French professional footballer Éric Cantona . In 2012 it was broadcast on Arte .
content
Cantona describes crucial life situations of various footballers who have shown strength of character in difficult situations and have exerted political and social influence.
Didier Drogba
Didier Drogba, star of the Ivorian national team, used the Ivorians' enthusiasm for Ivory Coast's qualification for the 2006 World Cup in Germany to exert political influence in his country. He called on the hostile ethnic groups in the Ivorian civil war for reconciliation, which in some cases also succeeded. An additional friendly match in the rebel capital contributed to a later armistice and the surrender of weapons .
Carlos Caszely
The Chilean Carlos Caszely refused to shake hands with the dictator Augusto Pinochet , for which the state took revenge on him. His mother was arrested and tortured while on a trip abroad. Among other things, her chest was burned. A member of a formerly banned union describes the horrific atrocities committed by the regime and the notorious national stadium in Santiago de Chile , which was converted into a concentration camp by the Pinochet government, and asks how FIFA was later able to use this stadium for qualifying matches.
Rachid Mekhloufi
The next chapter describes the story of the Algerian Rachid Mekhloufis, who founded the Algerian independence movement FLN with other resistance fighters in 1958 after just four games for the French national football team . Mekhloufi had witnessed the Sétif massacre as a child , but only later became politically conscious. This team promoted the Algerian independence movement abroad. In 1962 this goal was achieved and his homeland became sovereign under the treaties of Évian . The FIFA had tried to fight the team and teams threatened that played against the selection, heavy penalties.
Predrag Pašić
Predrag Pašić is a former Yugoslav international. In order to reduce the hatred of the ethnic groups among themselves, he founded a multi-ethnic children's soccer school in the embattled and bombed Sarajevo , with the help of which the children should overcome prejudice and war trauma . Pašić, who himself belongs to the ethnic group of Serbs , stayed in Sarajevo even when most of the other Serbs fled the city or Bosnia .
Sócrates
The Brazilian Sócrates was a superstar in his country in the 1980s, which at that time was still ruled by a military dictatorship. Sócrates, besides professional footballer also an intellectual and doctor - who missed the football World Cup in 1978 due to his medical degree - was one of the initiators of the so-called Corinthians democracy at his club Corinthians São Paulo . This movement first exemplified a grassroots decision-making culture within the club, which was already considered a provocation of the military rulers, but aroused great admiration from other football professionals and especially from the population. The club's motto was “Win or lose, but always with democracy” and the democratic activists ensured that more and more people in the country did not specifically oppose the military dictatorship, but instead committed themselves to more democracy. At one of the next elections, his team did not call for a candidate on their players' jerseys, but for voting. This led to the fact that almost all representatives of the dictatorship were not elected or voted out. Sócrates publicly announced in 1984 that he would not move abroad if a constitutional amendment for free and direct presidential elections were approved by parliament, which did not happen. Sócrates moved to Italy, but in 1985 there were free parliamentary elections, which sealed the end of the military dictatorship.
criticism
The Süddeutsche Zeitung praised the documentation as gripping. Cantona is not only the right person to tell this documentary, but he also takes his viewers on a journey through time.
Web links
- Rebels on the ball in the Internet Movie Database (English)