Sunday Ball
Description
Just down the road from Rio de Janeiro’s Maracaña Stadium, where the slick spectacle of last year’s World Cup unfolded, is the gritty, impoverished Sampaio neighborhood. This mesmerizing new work captures the spirit of championship soccer game between rival teams from local favelas. Much more than a sports film, Sunday Ball will amaze both hardcore fans and those with no interest in soccer. With no intrusive narration or tedious talking heads, the film is more like a work of poetry than a traditional sports documentary. Gracefully edited to echo the balletic rhythms of the game, the film uses footage from various games to create an intimate portrait of favela football culture. Director Eryk Rocha (son of Glauber Rocha, the leader of Brazil’s Cinema Novo movement) takes us deep inside the match along with the players. In fact, it’s no longer even a game—we join the two teams on a highly intense spiritual quest. And when the end comes, we experience the ecstasy of victory and the despair of loss right along with them. With graceful, glowing cinematography and exquisite sound design (blending Puccini and Wagner arias with Brazilian artists such as Heitor Villa-Lobos), Sunday Ball is a wonder to behold. —Joel Shepard
Eryk Rocha was born in Brazil in 1978 and studied cinema at the San Antonio de Los Baños School in Cuba. His first feature-length film, Stones in the Sky (SFIFF 2002), a portrait of his filmmaker father Glauber Rocha, was presented in the Venice, Locarno, Montreal, Rotterdam and Havana film festivals. In 2013, Rocha’s film Jards (2012) was selected for inclusion in New Directors/New Films.
Trailer
//player.vimeo.com/video/1122154157?autoplay=1Film Details
Language Portuguese
Original Language Title Campo de Jogo
Year 2014
Premiere US
Runtime 70
Country Brazil
Director Eryk Rocha
Producer Eryk Rocha, Samantha Capdeville, Mônica Botelho
Editor Renato Vallone
Cinematographer Léo Bittencourt
Music Jorge Amorim