FOOTBALL FESTIVAL | Offscreen
After 10 years Out Loud!, a summer programme of music films and concerts in Beursschouwburg, it was time to explore new horizons. The location stays the same: high and dry on the rooftop terrace of the BSB in the heart of Brussels. But this time, it's all about football (the most important «side-issue» in the world). Between June 13 and July 15, during the World Championship in Russia, the BSB will encircle live football broadcasts on the big screen with concerts, performances, and a programme of the best football films put together by Offscreen. This fine selection of (cult)film classics and two premieres tackles not only the football game but also other social and metaphysical themes such as religion, hooligans, utopia, politics, acrobatics. A programme that will score with both football fans and haters alike.
NAZIDANIE
Few World Cup finals have ever been as dramatic as that between Italy and France in 2006. Both teams were perfectly matched until extra time, in a tie, when star player Zinedine Zidane sent a headshot into his opponent Marco Materazzi’s chest. Zidane’s career ended with a red card and France lost the resulting penalty kicks.
THE DAMNED UNITED
‘I wouldn't say I was the best manager in the business. But I was in the top one.’ The words of Brian Clough. The Damned United tells a special and humorous tale of one of Britain's most ingenious and controversial football trainers and his 44 days as manager of Leeds United, English football champions of the early 1970s.
OFFSIDE
May 2006: Iran is about to qualify for the World Cup. Among the exuberant supporters are also girls, albeit disguised as boys. It is not allowed in this land of strict ayatollahs for women to attend football matches. When these young women are revealed and arrested, they do not give up without a fight. The soldiers guarding them try to do their job, but have their hands full with these rebellious and motivated ladies.
THE FIRM
The young Gary Oldman shines as Clive ‘Bexy’ Bissell, an average homebody dad who emerges in the weekends as leader of the Inner City Crew, a gang of infamous football hooligans in East London. The aim is to unite all the British firms for the inevitable confrontations with foreign clans in the upcoming European championships of 1988, but he stumbles into the brutal, bloody opposition of a rival criminal gang of supporters.
INFINITE FOOTBALL
Romanian New Wave director Corneliu Porumboiu (12:08 East of Bucharest) interviews his eccentric boyhood friend Laurențiu Ginghină. Ginghină is a middle-aged civil servant who has had a long-standing dream of reinventing the rules for the game of football: make them more streamlined, get rid of limitations, round off the edges of the field, organize players by zones and in subteams, etc.
COUP DE TÊTE
The 27-year-old François Perrin, an unruly and rebellious ne'er-do-well, plays football every Sunday at his local club, AS Trincamp. During a training session, he gets into a fight with Bertier, the star of the team, and is sent off the field. The owner of the club –also the boss at the factory where Perrin works – takes advantage of the situation to get rid of the troublemaker and fires him. Thanks to coincidence, Perrin, in fact, becomes indispensable for the upcoming football tournament and sets his mind on sweet revenge...
BEND IT LIKE BECKHAM
Bend It Like Beckham tells the story of Jess Bhamra, an 18-year-old English girl with Indian roots. She has one great passion: playing football! That is to the considerable consternation of her conservative and traditional Sikh parents. Her great model is David Beckham.
SHAOLIN SOCCER
A fallen-from-favour football coach puts together a new team of former Shaolin monks, who use their unique fighting styles in their games. The team captain is Shaolin Master Sing (Hong Kong superstar Stephen Chow), who uses his ‘steel legs technique’ to kick the ball into the goal at lightning speed. The objective is to win the national tournament, with its million dollar prize, but a corrupt football bobo thinks up a nasty plan to thwart the Shaolin team.
Offscreen photostream
