What would life be like if there were no such thing as football or soccer? The amusing but dark short Beinball shows us what happens to a middle-aged office worker whose only joy is the beautiful game.
The short reminds me of the comedy A Day without a Mexican, in which the city of Los Angeles comes to a stand-still when all those of Mexican heritage suddenly disappear. Fortunately for LA, that perturbation is only for one day, but Austrian Writer-Director Werner Fiedler takes his football theme a little further and a little darker.
Football is never coming back for poor Heimo (Reinhard Nowak). He makes his own soccer ball and tries to get people to play. But football never was and never will be. Life isn’t worth living without football, is it?
This low budget short cleverly depicts how people perceive you when they have no idea why you are doing the strange things fans do.
There is no real soccer in the film because hey, football doesn’t exist.
I couldn’t figure out if “beinball” is common football slang in Austria, or if it is a word the filmmaker made up.
A little interaction with the Director
Update: A couple of days after I posted this review, I was very fortunate to hear from Director Fiedler. I had asked him why he made this film, and was he a football fan. So it turns out he is not a fan of professional football, but he was inspired to make this film after the 2008 Euros were played in Austria. He had “never seen so much football fans before” and thought, what would they do if there were no football.
7 Soccer Movie Mom Rating = 7
Resources:
- Released: 2014-10-10 (USA)
- I watched this on Amazon Prime
- In German with English subtitles
- 21 minutes long
- Also known as Bootball
- IMDB
- Writer-Director: Werner Fiedler
- Stars: Reinhard Nowak
- Watch the Trailer
- Website and Facebook page
