joaoflux / digital / analog / culture

On the opening night of the international documentary festival in Amsterdam (idfa) I saw “Substitute” by Fred Poulet and Vikash Dhorasoo. The Film starts with Poulet explaining to Dhorasoo, a player of France’s 2006 national football team, how to operate a super 8 camera. During the world cup in Germany Dhorasoo gets little playtime and is getting quite frustrated. More than once in the film he sais “at least I making a movie”. The beautiful super 8 images along with almost shy self reflection of the protagonist make a great documentary. It contains more footage of hotel rooms, corridors and smuggling of film roles in and out of the hotel as well as discussing problems related to the making of the film itself via mobile phones during, than images of football matches or training.

The Film shows how depressing professional sport can be when success does not only depend on actual capability, but also on the trust one gets from a coach, who often becomes a psychological parent. That does not mean the film itself is depressing. It is certainly not as depressing as “Deutschland, ein Sommermärchen“, which involuntarily exposes how grown up men make complete fools of themselves and lose their dignity following a coach who acts like a clownesque Guru with simple recipes that don’t get more endurable just because they work. Of course the embarrassing piece of propaganda was a huge success in Germany.

Interview with Fred Poulet

Fred Poulet and Vikash Dhorasoo at the Berlinale 2007 (Interview on YouTube)