Soccer fever raises pitch in films

Soccer Days film series will showcase a variety of films on football at Instituto Cervantes

The FIFA World Cup is just around the corner and soccer fans all over the world are waiting for live football action to start.

To mark this historic moment in the world of sports, Instituto Cervantes in Connaught Place has organised a film festival only dedicated to football – ‘Soccer Days’.

The festival which commenced on June 1, will continue till June 29. The first Spanish film with subtitles to be screened was El sueño de Iván.

The film was about Iván, an eleven year old child who was going to play against the football world’s champions and live his first love story. For the first time in history, a team of stars who are followed by millions of people on TV was going to play against a team of children. The idea was to collect money and help the victims of a terrible earthquake in Africa. 

The second film of ‘Soccer Days’ film series is En fuera de juego, which will be screened on June 8. The film is about Diego, who dreamed of becoming a football player as a child but his hopes were soon dashed because of his lack of talent. Now he’s an unhappy doctor.

The film also focuses on Javi, who also dreamt of becoming a football player, but an injury puts an end to his dreams too and he becomes a mediocre agent in Spain. 

The third film is Argentina y su fábrica de fútbol and will be screened on June 15. The documentary will show the story of many children who begin their difficult journey to a professional football team. The film shows what is there beyond a play-field and how the country with not many industries, has great number of football stars.

Rivales will be another film, which will be screened on June 22. The film is about Deportivo Madrileño and the Atlético Barcelonés, two youth football teams that are preparing themselves for the great final game, which will take place in Sevilla. All of them have great hopes for this big match and dream of winning against their eternal rivals. 

The last film of the series will be Días de fútbol, which will be screened on June 29. The film is about Jorge’s life, which is sad and depressing. He finds his work boring, his girlfriend has just left him and his friends are all losers.

Antonio, his best friend, is just out of jail after various petty crimes and together they try to find out a way to change their miserable lives. The solution is to revive a soccer team they were part of when they were young.

But, nothing seems to work at first, and they lose every match. However, when Antonio’s close friend Serafin appears on the scene, things change as Serafin finds some unusual ways of succeeding on the soccer field.