Only heard of this because Vic Boydell edited it - she told us it was a 'sweet' film. Which it genuinely is. But it's not sugar-coated either, depicting extreme poverty, child soldiers, young prostitutes and HIV. It's also a useful geography lesson, as our young footballers journey south from Rwanda to South Africa.
Eriya Ndayambaje is the charismatic manager, Roger Jean Nsengiyumva the football prodigy and Sanyu Joanita Kintu the girl who we thought was Eriya's sister, but turns out she isn't - she wants nothing more than to be a doctor (these two never acted again). Then they run into former soldier Yves Dusenge, who has great presence - also never acted again - and sex worker Sherrie Silver, who later on worked as a choreographer on Childish Gambino's extraordinary 'This Is America' video.
It's also populated by animations telling the story of the football. Colorfully shot by Sean Bobbitt, it's a little treasure.
Rhidian Brook is the credited screenplay writer, but if you delve further into the credits you'll see it was 'based on a story premise' by Eric Kabera (also a producer and President of the Rwanda Cinema Center), co-developed by Ayuub Kasasa Mago and Moukhtar Omar Sibomana; and 'story developed' by Brook and Gardner-Paterson.
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