When a spectacular size is measured in Germany, most likely it is measured in soccer fields. Major sporting events also provide a measure for world events. Soccer translates into units and is supposed to create unity. Everything offside the playing field becomes insignificant after the kickoff. Racism, activism and class define the sport as much as the result. But in the end, only one thing is displayed on the scoreboard. Three films tackle this – soccer as measuring unit, as spectacle, and exploitative political tool. This sport frees us from responsibility, or at least we pretend it does. (Matti Ullrich)
The 15-year-old Êzîde Arkan Hussein Khalaf is stabbed to death in the small town of Celle in northern Germany. The police questions, interrogates, conducts an autopsy, searches, reconstructs, collects evidence, records – 1700 pages. An approach to structural racism through investigation files, soccer and growing up in Celle.… >>>
Enforced disappearances of opposition figures are a widespread practice of state terror in Latin America. “Desaparecidxs” are people who have been secretly abducted, tortured and murdered by security forces, but whose bodies have never been found. VOID looks at representation strategies of victims that had been made invisible. The found-footage work narrates itself along two significant soccer matches played during the South American Copa Libertadores in Barranquilla, Colombia. Despite the nationwide protests of 2021 in which up to 600 demonstrators were enforced disappeared, the soccer federation as well as the government persisted in hosting them. During the live broadcast, the state terror as well as the trauma of enforced disappearances became visible in a special way.… >>>
The documentary FATA MORGANA delves into the world of guest workers in Qatar. Between endless sandy deserts and crowded World Cup stadiums, the film tries to make tangible the living conditions of those without whom Qatar’s wealth would be unthinkable. Truck driver Abu Husain, like many migrant workers in Qatar, spends endless hours in a self-contained world of standing, waiting and persistently moving trucks on the fringes of society.… >>>