Reviews of soccer movies and football films
Soccer movie or Fußball Film directed or produced by Germans or about football in German
You might expect that as a reviewer of soccer movies, I would be well aware of COPA90, a company that claims to be “The world’s largest independent football media business”, delivering stories on “football like you’ve never seen it before”. I knew the name, but I hadn’t looked at their content until I watched Derby Days Berlin, an episode of their Copa90 Stories youtube channel.
Continue reading “Derby Days Berlin (2019) will make you a fan”
Although The Other Chelsea is 10 years old, it is a valuable film to watch in the context of today’s impeachment inquiry of Donald Trump. First-time Writer-Director Jakob Preuss lays out the struggling lives of coal miners in Donetsk and compares them to Kolya, a young rising local politician and businessman who drives a Lexus and drinks very old cognac. What ties them together is the success of their football team, FC Shakhtar Donetsk (Шахта́р Донецьк).
Continue reading “Shakhtar Donetsk is ‘The Other Chelsea’ (2010)”
Morris from America might come up when you search for “soccer movie”. But even though it takes place in Germany, and is ostensibly about a black American soccer coach, the film is not about football and actually has no football in it except as a visual reference. I’m reviewing the film on my website really, just to let you guys know.
Continue reading “‘Morris from America’ (2016) is not a soccer movie”
German fans still recovering from the team’s failure to advance at WC 2018 should return to watching Die Mannschaft. It is a nicely crafted love letter to Joachim Löw and the 2014 German National Team. It is a tribute to German football, showing everything the German Federation (DFB) did to optimize the team to win WC 2014.
Continue reading “In ‘Die Mannschaft’ (2014) teamwork is key to victory”
No words can adequately describe the courage and madness in fighting a government’s violence against its people. To understand this, you must watch it unfold. See how football fans influenced the 2013 Gezi protest in Turkey.
Continue reading “Brave souls unite behind football in ‘Istanbul United’ (2014)”
As sports fans, we should all thank Director Benjamin Best for his investigative journalism. We like to think that the games on which we spend so much time, money, and emotion, are equally true to us, the fans and supporters.
Continue reading “So many ways to cheat in ‘Dirty Games’ (2016)”
Refugees comprise 20% of the population of Lebanon. If the USA had a similar percentage, the entire populations of New York and California would be refugees. To counter the effects of such chaos on Lebanon, international organizations like the United Nations try to help the children.
Continue reading “A refugee soccer camp in ‘Beirut Parc’ (2016)”
During the month the 2010 World Cup is played in South Africa, Director Benjamin Kahlmeyer shows the life that goes on, meanwhile, in the impoverished township of Mamelodi. The township is only 16 miles from Loftus Stadium, but residents’ interaction is mostly limited to buying noisy vuvuzuelas and enjoying Bafana Bafana’s games on small black and white TVs.
Continue reading “The poverty around WC 2010 is ‘Meanwhile in Mamelodi’ (2011)”
In Turkey, Supporters Groups are the real fans, and everyone else is just a spectator. Filmmakers Naz Gündogdu and Friedemann Pitschak have documented a life that Americans have not yet experienced: being a fan in the face of political oppression.
Continue reading “Turkish fans under oppression in ‘Ayaktakimi’ (2015)”
How good is Trainer? It’s so good, you will never want to become a soccer coach in Germany. Director Aljoscha Pause follows 3 coaches in the 2nd and 3rd divisions of the German leagues during the 2012-2013 season. The men are under constant pressure from the media. But they are also constantly pushing themselves to excel and to someday reach the Bundesliga.
Continue reading “‘Trainer!’ (2013) may stifle your coaching aspiration”
Teufelskicker is a kick of a football film. It is a well-crafted movie based on the eponymous German children’s books by Frauke Nahrgang.
Discovering Coach Dad to be unfaithful, Moritz and his mom move in with Grandpa. In an unfriendly new school, Moritz is bullied by the local club team. He has to find new friends and build his own team, which they name Teufelskicker (Devil’s Kickers).
Continue reading “Imaginative combo of parkour + soccer in ‘Teufelskicker’ (2010)”
Das Wunder von Bern is one of the top soccer movie money-makers. It portrays the WC 1954 final, known as the Miracle of Bern, from the standpoint of a struggling mining town post-Hitler. A German POW returns from 11 years in the Soviet Gulag to a young son he didn’t know existed, and to a family that has grown up in his absence. The young boy is a talisman for local striker Helmut Rahn, who is called up to play for Germany but has trouble getting playing time.
Continue reading “From Russian enslavement to ‘The Miracle of Bern’ (2003)”
This German soccer movie, Guys and Balls, is predictable but very cute. Ecki, a small-town goalkeeper and baker, is kicked off his semi-pro team for being gay. In defiance, he organizes an all-gay team to play against his former team in their home stadium, resulting in a nice strike against homophobia.
Continue reading “If Jurgen Klinsmann preferred ‘Guys and Balls’ (2004)”
Below the Earth’s Surface (or Gaping Abyss) is a German TV action movie in a stadium, it is not really a soccer movie. But it has good production values and rolls along at a tense pace.
Continue reading “‘Below the Earth’s Surface’ (2008) can this stadium be saved?”
Die Wilden Kerle 2, aka The Wild Soccer Bunch 2, is popular in Germany, and maybe there it is family friendly. Maybe you have to be raised in Germany and understand German fairy tales to appreciate this movie. I thought I had accidentally switched channels to a nightmare sequence in a Fellini movie.
Continue reading “‘Die Wilden Kerle 2’ (2005) seems inappropriate”