Beirut, balls and balloons
Golden Nymph & International Critics' Prize
Monte Carlo Festival 1993
Le Monde : "As in Rossellini's Germany Year Zero, Frédéric Laffont's film begins in a post-war, end-of-world setting. The idea is beautiful and happy (...)
The director's talent: from confession to confession, from detail to detail, from a fan's cry to a thought in the form of a poem, Frédéric Laffont gives his reportage an allegorical depth, and turns a film about soccer into a film about Lebanon."
A film by Frédéric Laffont
Editing: Jean-François Giré
Lenght: 55'
© France 3, Temps présent TSR, Interscoop, 1992
Beirut, 1990. The war never ends...
A soccer club, the once prestigious Nejmeh, brings together men who once fought each other.
With Ali, the goalkeeper, we visit each other's homes, on either side of the front and offside lines.
Jo, Ali's father and first supporter, is a cab driver.
In the still mined ruins of Beirut, he sings Aznavour: “How Sad Venice Can Be...”.