CELEBRATING FOOTBALL IN FILM – The Futkaleros marked the festival’s football program, “The Beautiful Game” with an exhibition of futkal tricks at the Opening Night of the 13th Cinemanila last 11.11.11. Philippine pop-rock icon Ely Buendia served as DJ, mixing beats on his iPhone.

The program features the world’s most popular sport — now played by around 250 million players in over 200 countries — football or soccer.

This year’s cinematic line-up will include documentaries about the world’s football heroes. Journey with a young American who struggles to reach his dreams of playing in the elite European leagues and the World Cup in Rise & Shine: The Jay DeMerit Story (2011). Immerse yourself in the intensity and flow of a single soccer match as 17 synchronized cameras follow French footballer Zinedine Zidane in Zidane, A 21st Century Portrait (2006). Then open your eyes to the relationship of crime, sports and politics in the gripping The Two Escobars (2010), the intertwined story of drug kingpin Pablo Escobar and Colombian football star Andres Escobar who paid dearly for scoring an “own goal” in the 1994 World Cup.

Of course, soccer has always been great fodder for fiction as well, and Cinemanila has a feast of films to offer depending on your mood. Get a dose of social reality in Jafar Panahi’s Offside (2006), about Iranian girls attempting to watch a World Cup qualifying match despite their country’s law forbidding them to do so because of their sex. Then laugh as two young football-crazed Tibetan refugee novice monks in a remote Himalayan monastery in India desperately try to obtain a TV for the monastery to watch the 1998 World Cup final in The Cup (1999) by Bhutanese director Khyentse Norbu. And if you want drama, witness the rise and fall of a football star in The Striker with Number 9 (1989) by Greek filmmaker Pantelis Voulgaris. But if you fancy a combination of comedy and drama, enjoy — in one of the festival’s outdoor screenings — the critically-acclaimed and international hit Bend It Like Beckham (2002) by Gurinder Chadha, and starring Parminder Nagra & Keira Knightley. Finally, if you like coming-of-age stories, watch Happyland (2010) — by the Philippines’ very own Jim Libiran (with a cameo by Azkals star Phil Younghusband) — about a group of street kids who form a soccer team.

Screenings:

The Cup – November 13, 1:45pm, Fully Booked High Street
The Two Escobars – November 13, 7:00 pm, Market! Market! Cinema 5
Bend it Like Beckham – November 14, 7:00 pm, Bonifacio High Street
Zidane: A 21st Century Portait – November 14, 1:45 pm, Fully Booked High Street
Happyland – November 15, 4:30 pm, Cinema 4
Striker with the No.9 – November 15, 7:00 pm, Market! Market! Cinema 6
Rise and Shine: The Jay Demerit Story – November 17, 7:00 pm, Fully Booked High Street
Offside – November 17, 4:30 pm, Market! Market! Cinema 5