Euro 2008 Film Festival: Group D, Sweden

Film Festival Rules & Guidelines

Film selected (Year, Director): Thriller a cruel picture (1974, Bo Arne Vibenius)
Rating: 6/10
Rules compliance: All rules met
Relevance to Soccer: Violence and revenge

The off-field violence in soccer has become a cause of growing concern over the last decade or so. In the 1970's and 80's, the problem of soccer gang violence was mostly restricted to England. But after a few serious incidents of fan deaths in the 80's, the English game began to clean up and crack down on hooligans. Since the 1990's the English game's image has improved with regards to gang violence, but this problem has intensified in parts of Eastern Europe, Brazil, Argentina, Italy, Turkey, Holland to name a few regions. The tv show The Real Football Factories does a good job of showcasing the cauldrons of hatred that lurks amid so called fans of the game. The show idea sprung after the 2004 film The Football Factory showed how gangs organized themselves for fights in England. After that film, a tv show started by first exploring the real life gang violence around stadiums in the U.K before hopping across the ocean to observe the gangs across Europe and South America. These gangs use the soccer games as an excuse to get revenge, create havoc and sometimes ruthlessly kill opponents of another team. Most of these 'fans' spend more time organizing fights but might be hard pressed to even name a few details of the beautiful game. In some cases, the causes of hatred go back a few decades or even a century of so. The game then becomes an excuse to revive revenges from incidents of times past.

The Swedish film Thriller is about pure revenge. But the main character in the film (Madeleine) has a genuine need for revenge. Madeleine's life tragedy started in her childhood when she was raped and rendered mute. When she was barely a teenager, she was tricked by Tony who drugged and forced her into prostitution. Madeleine tried to resist but she had to pay the cost by losing an eye. After that her life becomes an endless cycle of misery with the exception being on Monday, her only day off.

Eventually Madeleine's hatred at Tony and his customers starts to build. She starts taking training lessons for ultimate revenge.


Armed with a shotgun, she goes about executing those who wronged her.



While the plot may sound simple by today's standards, the film stands out because of its graphic sex scenes. Thriller could be described as an exploitation film appropriate for a grind-house double bill. The 1974 film would have stayed hidden from the World if not for Quentin Tarantino who mentioned that he modeled the Daryl Hannah character in Kill Bill after Christina Lindberg's Madeleine character from Thriller. In fact, the shrill background noise in Kill Bill when Uma Thurman's character eyes an opponent is also influenced from this Swedish film. The violence in Thriller is tame as all the killings are shown in slow-motion and appear more comic than gory. Although there is an act of uncomfortable cruelty when Madeleine is turned into a pirate by Tony -- the point of view camera shows Tony's razor heading closely towards Madeleine's left eye until the camera pulls back to show a scene more graphic than the razor-meets-eye scene from Luis Buñuel Un chien andalou.

Overall, the 12th film from the Euro festival is certainly a shock to the system compared to the other features.

Soccer Sunday

Sunday, Feb 10: Plenty of good soccer on tap
(mountain time):

6:30 am: The Manchester derby kicks off at Old Trafford.
7:00 am: The Italian Serie A games kick-off
7:30 am: I tune into the Manchester derby and shockingly Man City are 2-0 away. Wow!
8:00 am: I catch up with French Ligue 1. Lyon and Bordeaux register another win each.
8:15 am: Milan take a 1-0 lead with 18 year old Italian kid Paloschi scoring with his first touch. It is an amazing sight. The youngster comes on for Serginho and less than 60 seconds later smashes home a great goal. Another star in the making? The upcoming weeks will tell. I have never seen such a smile on Milan coach Carlo Ancelotti's face :)

approx 8:20 am: The Manchester Derby is over with Man City winning 2-1.

9:00 am: Chelsea-Liverpool kick-off along with the top of table clash in Germany with Bayern Munich hosting Werder Bremen.

9:07 am: Diego scores a beautiful goal to stun Bayern.

9:45 am: The boring Chelsea-Liverpool game is 0-0 at half-time with Bayern drawing 1-1 with Werder.

10:00 am: The African Cup of Nations Final between Egypt and Cameroon kicks off.

11 am: The boring awful Chelsea-Liverpool game ends 0-0. One of the worst games ever, typical of Liverpool and Chelsea games. Bayern stay top in Germany with a 1-1 tie with Werder.

Around 11:35 am or so: Egypt finally score a goal after Mohamed Zidan latches on a mistake by Rigobert Song and stays on his feet to calmly pass the ball to an unmarked Aboutrika who slots the ball into the net.


11:50 am: The final whistle goes and Egypt win back to back African Cup titles and their 6th overall crown.

What a tournament! Egypt certainly deserve their title as they played some amazing football, especially the 4-1 win over Ivory Coast and their opening day demolition of Cameroon 4-2. The final with a cagey affair but overall, Egypt were the better team.




Oh also on Sunday, Real Madrid put 7 past Valladolid to go 8 points clear at the top in La Liga.

Recap of African Cup of Nations Semi's

On Thursday, Feb 5 the semi-finals of the African Cup of Nations took place. In the first semi, I expected the hosts Ghana to edge past Cameroon while I expected the talented Ivory Coast team to beat the defending champs Egypt in the other semi.

Well I was wrong on both counts. Even though Cameroon are not the force they were once in the 90's, they managed to do enough to get past Ghana. Despite an opening day 4-2 thrashing by Egypt, Cameroon have improved steadily and managed to hold their defense together against the heavily supported home team.

The second semi between Ivory Coast and Egypt was a cracking affair. The game was fast paced and completely physical. It was surprizing to see Egypt outmuscle and outplay Ivory Coast for most of the game. Even though Egypt were fortunate to take the lead with a deflected shot, they managed to keep Ivory Coast at bay. Credit goes to the Egyptian goal-keeper for making two world class saves, including one early in the second half from a perfect Drogba header. Drogba's downward header appeared to be going in the goal until a superb reflex save by Al Hadari preserved Egypt's narrow 1-0 lead.

Just after the hour mark, Amr Zaki lost his marker (Arsenal's Kolo Toure who was back in the line-up after an injury early in the tournament) and perfectly headed the ball into the far corner to give Egypt a 2-0 lead. A minute later Keita scored one of the goals of the tournament with a brilliant long range shot to pull the score back to 2-1. From then on, Ivory Coast pushed forward and Egypt caught them on the break with Zaki getting his second of the game to make it 3-1. That third goal took the wind out of Ivory Coast and they never looked like getting back in the game. Egypt duly wrapped things up in the 90th minute with a 4th goal. The Egyptian captain looked towards the camera and appeared to utter "khallas" refering to the game as finished. Indeed. There was no doubt that the defending champs Egypt had put in the best performance of the tournament to take out the talented Ivory Coast 4-1.

Sunday's final promises to be interesting with Egypt taking on Cameroon. Saturday's third place game will be an anti-climatic event as pre-tournament favourite's Ghana take on Ivory Coast.

Weekend EPL games

This weekend's English Premier League games are the return legs from the Round 3 fixtures.

Recap of Round 3:
None of the big four of Arsenal, Man Utd, Chelsea or Liverpool picked up a win in Round 3. But Arsenal, Liverpool and Blackburn had only played one game heading into the weekend of August 19 because of European ties.

Arsenal 1-1 Blackburn
No Arsenal fan needs reminding of this game. A mistake from Jens coupled with his opening day error against Fulham signaled the end of his first team days. Prior to this game, my image of Jens was either seeing him in a defiant mood, pushing someone, shouting or being authoritative. But this was the first time I saw him lower his head in his gloves and go silent.

Liverpool 1-1 Chelsea
A superb Torres goal gave Liverpool the lead and they should have picked up all 3 points until a non-existent penalty was given to Chelsea. Even though the ref admitted later he had made a mistake, it did not erase the fact that Liverpool were robbed. Chelsea never looked like getting anything from this game until that gift.

Man City 1-0 Man Utd
Nothing went right for United and City rode their luck after a sliced deflection gave them three precious points.

So after Round 3, Man City were alone at the top with 9 points, Chelsea had 7 points, Liverpool, Arsenal and Blackburn had 4 each while Man Utd were winless with 2points.

Round 26:
How the table has changed. Arsenal are top with 60, Man Utd right behind with 58, Chelsea have 54, Liverpool are in 5th with 43, Man City are in 7th with 41 and Blackburn are in 8th with 39 points. Liverpool still have a game in hand.

Arsenal's home record is second only to Man Utd's in the league. The Gunners have 11 wins and 2 draws, one of them being a 2-2 with Utd. Arsenal also lead the league with most goals scored at 52.

Blackburn's away record is slightly better than their home record. Away from home, they have picked up 20 points (5 wins, 5 draws and 2 losses) while at home they have 5 wins, 4 draws and 4 losses. Blackburn have scored 32 goals this season and let in 31, with 19 goals scored away from home and 18 conceded away.

The Manchester derby takes place early on Sunday morning, followed by the Chelsea-Liverpool game on Sunday evening. Arsenal take on Blackburn on a rare monday night game.

Arsenal should not expect any favours from Man City or Liverpool. The Torres injury will not help Liverpool against a Chelsea side who are still grinding results out.

Familiar Foe:
In recent years, the frequent meetings with Blackburn in the domestic cup competitions combined with their tactics have made them an annoying opponent for Arsenal. In the last 8 seasons, Arsenal have faced Blackburn 3 times in the F.A Cup (4 games in total) and twice in the Carling Cup, including this season's 3-2 win. Last season, Arsenal lost 1-0 away to Blackburn in the F.A Cup after a 0-0 draw in the first leg.

But Arsenal's 6-2 thumping win over Blackburn at home last season surely makes up for some of those frustrating moments with Blackburn over the years. Since Blackburn's promotion back to the league in the 2001/02 season, Arsenal have won 8 times, drawn two (this year's 1-1 draw and a 3-3 home tie in the 2002 double year) and lost 3 times. Arsenal lost both fixtures to Blackburn in a dismal 2002/03 season. In the 90's, Arsenal also failed to beat Blackburn in both fixtures on three other occasions -- the first season of the Premier League & Blackburn's return to top-flight football in 1992/93, Blackburn's title season of 1994/95 and the 1995/96 season.

Overall, Arsenal have 46 wins, 29 draws and 24 defeats against Blackburn since the two first met in league football in the 1904/05 season. The first meeting between these two teams took place appropriately in a F.A Cup tie on Feb 9, 1901 when Arsenal won 2-0.

Euro 2008 Film Festival: Group C, Romania

Film Festival Rules & Guidelines

Film selected (Year, Director): 12:08 East of Bucharest (2006, Corneliu Porumboiu)
Rating: 9/10
Rules compliance: All rules met

Relevance to Soccer: Revisiting history

Some of the best soccer games and players existed in days before television. The only way today's fans can learn of these glorious past episodes is by reading books by fans, former players or journalists who were lucky enough to witness those magical moment in the sport. But what if the writer's memory is weak and there is no one to provide a better version of the truth? In that case, the tarnished memory will serve as fact and a legend will be formed.

The core of 12:08 East of Bucharest is about confirming a historic moment in a small town's past. In order to verify whether a revolution took place in the town in December 1989, a tv show host (Jderescu) gets two people together for a live tv debate.


The idea is to get these two people's versions and then get viewers to call in with their own stories. To start things off, Manescu (the local school teacher) gives his account and confirms he led a small revolution on that historic date.


While Manescu is providing his story, the other guest Piscosi (sitting on the left) is bored and distracted.


Once the phone lines are opened up, all the viewers who phone in only call to contradict Manescu's story. He is considered a town drunk and no one thinks much of him. After that, the show turns into a dissection of Manescu's version as opposed to having a civilized debate.

12:08 East of Bucharest is a hilarious film that is just fun to watch. It mixes political, subjective and even racial views in an easy flowing manner. In terms of film-making, 12:08 East of Bucharest may be third best when compared to its fellow Romanian films (The Death of Mister Lazarescu and 4 Months 3 Weeks & 2 Days) but it is more light hearted than those two films. And sometimes, one needs humour to depict the absurd situations.

Euro 2008 Film Festival: Group B, Austria

Film Festival Rules & Guidelines

Film selected (Year, Director): Antares (2004, Götz Spielmann)
Rating: 8/10
Rules compliance: All rules met

Relevance to Soccer: cautious approach

No soccer manager or team ever takes the field with the intent of playing out a dull game. But sometimes managers approach the game with a cautious line-up because they rather get one point from the game and not lose. And if the opposing team manager also puts out a cautious line-up, then we get a stalemate of a game, with very few chances and no excitement.

Similarly, no couple every gets into a relationship with the intention of leading a dull marital life. But with the stresses and strains of every day life, a marriage can often become a routine with very few exciting moments.

At the start of the Austrian film Antares, Eva is living an ordinary life with her husband.

Her quiet and peaceful marriage offers very little excitement. So in order to shake things up, she undertakes a passionate affair.

The affair forms just one of three stories, all of which involve residents of an apartment complex in a manner which seems to echo Krzysztof Kieslowski's
Decalogue.

But Decalogue was completely engaging and featured memorable characters. Whereas, only some of the characters and stories in Antares are interesting. The film also runs for longer than it should.

Overall, Antares along with the two Austrian films by Ulrich Seidl (Dog Days and Import/Export) give a very bleak view of Austrian life. Hopefully, the Austrian soccer team can give their nation something to cheer for in the summer. Currently, as it stands, Austria are the weakest soccer team out of the 16 teams taking part at Euro 2008.

Euro 2008 Film Festival: Group C, Holland

Film Festival Rules & Guidelines

Film selected (Year, Director): Interview (2003, Theo Van Gogh)
Rating: 7/10
Rules compliance: All Rules met

Relevance to Soccer: listening to the star

A few decades ago, people just watched the soccer game and only discussed the player's performance. No one interviewed the soccer player or cared to hear what the soccer player had to say. Then with the advent of tv and the popularity of the game, countless tv shows and publications on the game originated. In order to accommodate all the different media needs, interviews with players were needed to fill the tv spots and pages of papers. Unfortunately, most of the interviews are not very useful which give very little insight into the game or even the player's thinking. But every now and then, a good interviewer manages to corner a player and get something useful related to the game out of the player.

Just like soccer, the history of interviews with film stars has followed a similar pattern. A long time ago, in the era of silent movies, the actors performed in front of the camera and no one really cared to listen to what they had to say. But with the popularity of movies, the number of interviews with the actors increased. And in today's day and age, interviews with actors outnumber the films they act in -- actors are often carted from room to room giving the same interview over and over. As a result, a single movie spawns more than a few dozen interviews. Most of the interviews turn out recycled words but just like the soccer interviews, sometimes an interviewer actually manages to get the actors to say something interesting.

The Dutch film Interview starts off with Pierre (a political journalist) accepting to interview Katja, a popular B movie actress.

Pierre has no interest in the interview and early on launches into a personal attack. But Katja is unfazed and bites back.

What follows is an intense dialogue, with one person clearly playing the other.

One of the reasons I picked this Dutch film was to finally see something by Theo Van Gogh. I only heard of him after he was murdered. Ian Buruma's book A Murder in Amsterdam details not only his murder but also looks at how this murder made people question Holland's stance of tolerance. Also, this film was also remade into a low budget Hollywood film with Steve Buscemi and Sienna Miller released in 2007.

Euro 2008 Film Festival: Group D, Greece

Film Festival Rules & Guidelines

Film selected (Year, Director): Rouleman (2005, Panos Karkanevatos)
Rating: 7/10
Rules compliance: All Rules met

Relevance to Soccer: Fame and a better life

Every year plenty of soccer players from around the World leave their small town soccer team for a big professional team in the city. Very few of those who leave their homes actually make it as a professional. If the rejected players are smart, they would try for a different team or if things do not work out at all, then choose an alternate profession. Ofcourse, the options for the rejected player are easier if the player moved to the city in legal manner. Recent reports have suggested that players have been getting picked from South American or even African clubs and transported to Europe on shaky immigration papers and were often left to fend on their own. But soccer is not the only case with gruesome stories of people's lives getting turned upside down after a move to the big city.

In Rouleman, Loula wants to leave her small town for the city.

Kosmos enters her life and promises to marry her and take her to the city.


But he does not mention his financial problems and shady past to Loula and as a result, the two are forced to continue living in the small town after marriage. Loula is frustrated and leaves for the city on her own. She initially faces difficulties but manages to do fine. However, Kosmos is jealous of her life and wants her back. But she does not want to have anything with him. A confrontational situation leads to only one possible predictable outcome.


No matter how bad his life is, Kosmos still manages to show interest in soccer. He wants to take Loula to see an AEK Athens derby game but she is not interested. Even when Kosmos is in jail, he is curious to know how AEK did.

Euro 2008 Film Festival: Group C, France

Film Festival Rules & Guidelines

Film selected (Year, Director): Angela-A (2005, Luc Besson)
Rating: 7.5/10
Rules compliance: I have seen a handful of Besson's previous films so the selection fails to be one from an unseen director's work.

Relevance to Soccer: Own goals

Scoring an own goal in soccer is an awful feeling. There can be many reasons for an own goal such as lack of communication between the player and his goal-keeper, bad judgment on the player's part or just plain bad luck. Although some players are more likely to score own goals than others. But with enough training and experience, one expects these players to make correctly timed tackles to avoid those dreaded own goals in the future.

At the start of Angel-A, we find André (Jamel Debbouze)


who has made one too many bad decisions. Finding himself with a debt that he cannot pay, André chooses to end his life. But a guardian angel Angela (Rie Rasmussen) comes to his rescue and helps get him out of trouble.

Unfortunately, it is in André's nature to make bad decisions and he once again manages to dig himself into a hole. So Angela decides to give André a lesson in self-confidence in the hope that he can evaluate future situations in a better manner.



Filmed in gorgeous black and white, Angel-A is a light hearted film set in Paris. No matter how miserable André feels, he can always count on the presence of the Eiffel tower as a guiding light in his life.

Euro 2008 Film Festival: Group A, Switzerland

Film Festival Rules & Guidelines

Film selected (Year, Director): The Boat is Full (1981, Markus Imhoof)
Rating: 8/10
Rules compliance: All rules met

Relevance to Soccer: Passive Offside ('neutral'), goal-line

The offside rule is often a source of dispute and controversy in soccer. Not a week goes by without professional soccer teams disputing an incorrect offside call or having a valid goal disallowed. In recent years, the offside rule has become even harder to interpret and implement because of the 'passive' offside concept. As per the 'passive' offside rule, if a player is an offside position but is deemed to be not involved in their team's play, then the referee does not call offside and stop the play. This guideline was meant to encourage attacking soccer because if a player is not involved in the play, then why should that player's team be penalized for having a valid scoring chance called back? But this interpretation has caused plenty of confusion and heated debate. Some people argue that if a player is on the field, then that player is always involved in the play, directly or indirectly -- the player might not touch the ball but instead might distract an opposing team's defender or the opposing goal-keeper's view. Also, the rule is exploited by some players who can cleverly move from a 'passive' position to an 'active' position and help score a goal. When Ruud Van Nistelrooy used to play for Manchester United, he was an expert in taking advantage of this offside rule loop-hole. In plenty of Manchester's plays, he was often in a 'passive' position at the start of the play but then turned up to score a goal from an 'active' position. But the reality was that as soon as he touched the ball, the game should have stopped because he was no longer passive. Yet, he continued to get away because in a fast paced game, the referee and linesman could not keep track of his movements.

So I wanted to compare this 'passive' offside rule to the concept of neutrality in times of war. If one reads the history books, Switzerland is often considered as being neutral during WWII. But can a nation be truly 100% neutral when its neighbouring countries are at war? For a nation to be neutral, its borders have to be shut tight and no neighbouring citizens or armies should be allowed through; no enemy planes should be able to cross its air-space and the neural nation should not be involved in transporting or selling any resources to the neighbouring nations. In reality, it is very difficult to maintain such restrictions. While the neutral nation might not send its army to actively participate in the war, if the nation allows the enemy troops to cross its boundaries, then it is no longer neutral.

The film The Boat is Full questions the Swiss claims of neutrality. Based on Alfred A. Haesler's book, the story shows how a group of Jewish refugees struggle to stay within the Swiss borders. In order to get asylum the group have to pretend to be a family. But if the group is not found to be a family, they will be deported and sent to their death. One of the questions that arises from the film is that if a country knowingly hands over people to their death, can that nation be considered neutral?

As the camera closes in on one of the Swiss borders near the film's end, I was reminded of a goal-line in between the two goal posts.


The goal-line creates two binary situations -- in order for a goal to be scored, the whole ball has to cross the line; on one side of the goal-line is a goal, on the other side is no goal.


So I thought of the border in this film as depicting a binary situation. On one side of the border is life for the Jewish citizens, on the other side of the border is death for the citizens. The area in between the border is a partial state of uncertainty -- neither life nor death, similar to the situation where a ball stays on a goal-line, alternating between a goal and no-goal.

Just soccer but no films

Sunday: Feb 3, 2008: The African Cup of Nations Quarter-finals kicked off.

Today's two matches pitted 4 West African Nations against each other. I am familiar with almost all of the players from Ghana, Nigeria and Ivory Coast but I have yet to see a movie from any of the four countries.

Quarter-Final 1: Ghana 2-1 Nigeria

pic from Eurosport

The hosts Ghana were the clear favourites going into this game and they duly beat Nigeria to advance to the semi-finals. Although, Nigeria surprized the hosts by taking the lead in the 35th minute via the penalty spot. Everton's Yakubu coolly slotted the ball for the opener, but on the stroke of half-time Ghana's midfield dynamo Essien powerfully headed the hosts level. On the hour mark, the Ghanian captain (John Mensah) was sent-off for bringing down Nigeria's Odemwingie on the edge of the penalty box. The decision was a correct one as Mensah was the last Ghanian player in between Odemwingie and the Ghanian net but only if Odemwingie had looked up and passed the ball to his team-mate who was completely unmarked, Nigeria could have taken the lead. Ten-men Ghana battled on and grabbed a winner in the 83rd minute thanks to Agogo tapping in a cross from a few yards out. The Ghanian goal came of nowhere and thrilled the packed stadium.

Despite having a man advantage for the last 30 minutes, Nigeria never looked like getting a winner. They never created any clear-cut chances and in fact, their performance has been very poor at this year's African Cup of nations. Nigeria started the tournament with a 1-0 defeat to Ivory Coast and followed that with a 0-0 tie with Mali. Only a 2-0 win over Benin coupled with Mali's 3-0 defeat to Ivory Coast ensured that Nigeria were in the quarters. Nigeria were once a force on the international stage in the mid 1990's but their star is fading fast not only in International soccer but also in African soccer.

Quarter-Final 2: Ivory Coast 5-0 Guinea

pic from Eurosport

This was clearly a mismatch. Before the game, I had expected a 3-0 or a 4-0 Ivory Coast win but I was surprized at how well Guinea managed to contain the talented Ivory Coast team in the first half. Keita's well taken goal in the 25th minute was all that separated the two teams at half-time. In the second half, it all came undone for Guinea in the final 25 minutes. After a long ball opened up Guinea's defense in the 68th minute, Aruna Dindane raced past Guinea's goal-keeper (Camara) but he somehow missed the open net. Even though Dindane let Guinea off the hook, it was a worrying sign to see Guinea exposed so badly as their entire defense was missing. Guinea were throwing caution to the wind and were pushing forward to get an equalizer, so it appeared to be only a matter of time before Ivory Coast would hit them on the counter-attack. Sure enough, two minutes later Didier Drogba powered past the final Guinea defender to calmly place the ball into the bottom corner for a 2-0 lead. Another two minutes later, Drogba carved open Guinea's defense with a perfect through ball and Kalou rounded the helpless Camara to walk the ball into the net to make it 3-0. Guinea were in shambles now and it was not a surprize to see Ivory Coast score two more goals.

Ivory Coast continue to march along in this year's tournament. Their team is loaded with talented players in every position and should be one of the favourites to win this year's tournament.

Monday, Feb 4 Quarter-Finals:

Tomorrow's two matches see the defending African Cup Champs Egypt take on Angola and the talented Tunisian team take on Cameroon. With the exception of Angola, atleast I have seen films from the other three countries.

Drops of red tinged oil

Follow the trail. Where there is black oozing liquid, there will surely be blood. The blood may not be clearly visible on the surface but it will exist as a fusion of dried up blood molecules mixed and mated with the sands of time.


After all, in the last 90 years or so, oil has been the center of major battles and regime changes. The mad rush started just before World War I with the discovery of oil in the Middle East and the growing need of the Western World on oil to power their naval ships and war planes. Border lines were drawn and secret deals were made with nations to get their oil supplies. The need for oil started shifting certain political attitudes and even started influencing foreign policies.

In WWII, it was the need for oil that changed the fate of Japan and Germany. After Japan's oil supply was cut-off in the pacific, they attacked Pearl Harbor and as a result drew the Americans into the war, forever changing the course of the battle. Germany's downfall was partly fueled by Hitler's decision to break his pact with the Soviets and go after their oil fields. A wasted battle with the Soviets depleted the German troops and aided in the Allies marching towards victory.

After WWII, oil was once again center as the Cold War starting dividing the global map into strategic assets. The assets had to be protected at all costs, even if that meant regime changes. A moderate ruler would be replaced by a dictator or a dictator had to be thrown out in favour of Western friendly leaders. The political power of oil was truly exemplified when the oil supplies were turned off by OPEC in 1973. Anger and Panic surely led to some drastic plans drawn up to ensure that the World would never again be at the mercy of a few nations. We may be seeing the consequences of those decisions in current times.

When the Soviets invaded Afghanistan in 1979, it was the panic of seeing the Soviets having access to oil supplies that led to a CIA backed campaign to drive the Soviets out. And it was oil that led to the invasion of Kuwait in 1990 and the subsequent Gulf war. In fact, if it were not for oil, then Kuwait might not have existed in the first place. But it is interesting that Iraq invaded Kuwait not only to annex the oil wells but also as a form of revenge against what a Northern Kuwaiti oil well was doing. Apparently, lateral drilling techniques at the Northern Kuwaiti well were leading to oil getting sucked from Iraqi wells and filling the coffers of Kuwaiti money. This technique of 'drainage' would be most familiar to Daniel Plainview, the main character in Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will be blood. In the movie, Daniel himself engages in sucking oil out of neighbouring lands, without their permission or knowledge ofcourse.

And in the year 2008, oil is once again a cause of debate regarding wars, invasions and even future national deals. Given that the world firmly depends on oil (unless one drives a car in Brazil), the timing of There Will be Blood could not be more appropriate.



There Will be Blood is about the greed that exists in man as he lusts after oil. But Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis) did not start out going after oil. His initial object of desire was gold as that was the precious resource in 1898. Two years later, he moves onto oil.

Discover, Create, Produce & Consume:

How does a natural resource become valuable? When someone is able to create and mass produce a use for the resource. Otherwise, the resource would lie tucked away beneath the earth without anyone bothering to dig it up. If a resource has no value, then people like Daniel Plainview would not risk their life in order to get the precious resource.

Watching the action:

We hear no dialogue in probably the opening 15 minutes or so of There Will be Blood. We don't really need to. Just by observing Daniel, we know what kind of person he is. And when we do hear his first on-screen words, they are powerfully arresting. These are the kinds of words that can sway and lure people into a false sense of security. Daniel's measured words provide confident leadership and hide his evil intentions. Isn't that what all great leaders do? Mask away their real intentions with silky words? Well Daniel is a very good talker. When he talks, you can be sure people will listen. And if people do not want to listen to him, then he simply walks away as he does not have time to waste.

If the film had ended after 75-80 minutes, I would have applauded this as a masterpiece. But the film goes on for another 75 minutes. We are given enough information in the first 80 minutes to know everything about Daniel, his relationship with his son, the true nature of the religious man (Eli played by Paul Dano) and all the deals/handshakes/compromises that have to be made in order to be successful in the oil business. The final hour just spoon feeds examples for people who did not get that Daniel is pure evil or that Eli is not the true prophet that he is. The last hour shows that money is superior to religion and can truly bend people. But we already knew that very early on in the film.

Acting wise, Daniel Day-Lewis has given an amazing performance. Pure genius on his part! Then there is the haunting background score which alerts us of impending danger, which causes us to get restless and uneasy at the evil that lurks in men's hearts. The music and Daniel's voice still linger in my head, almost 4 days after seeing the movie. And I believe, they will stay with me for a very long time.

Rating: 8.5/10

Euro 2008 Film Festival: Group A, Czech Republic

Film Festival Rules & Guidelines

Film selected (Year, Director): Zelary (2003, Ondrej Trojan)
Rating: 7.5/10
Rules compliance: All rules met

Relevance to Soccer: Trust and understanding

Imagine the scene. A soccer player plays a ball into open space. But no player runs onto the pass and the ball rolls harmlessly wide. The fans laugh at the player who played the ball. As the tv camera focuses on the player, we see either a bemused or an angry look on his face. He played the ball into an empty space excepting his team-mate to run onto it. But the team-mate was not on the same wavelength. The tv commentators inform their viewers that this failed pass was due to a lack of understanding between the two soccer players, because the player's team-mate is a new addition to the team and did not have enough time to settle down. Eventually, when the new soccer player settles down, he will be better able to anticipate his team-mate's passes and make the appropriate runs. Well, atleast that is the idea. While some players settle in with no problems at their new teams, there are some players who never really adapt to their new team and understand how the team plays.

The core of the World War II Czech film Zelary involves understanding between two strangers. Eliska is member of the Czech resistance and seeks to help out her members with a mission.


But things go wrong and she ends up on the Gestapo's list. She has no choice but to leave Prague. The head of the resistance decides to send Eliska with Joza to a small isolated village (Zelary) in order to save her.

Initially, Eliska detests Joza and cannot stand him and his habits. The two eventually come to understand each other and realize the importance of having the other in their lives.

Even though the story is very predictable, there are some beautiful visuals which capture the countryside perfectly. While watching the vast empty spaces, all I kept thinking was that a soccer ball would look great in the background. But alas, World War II was no time for soccer.

Euro 2008 Film Festival: Group B, Croatia

Film Festival Rules & Guidelines

Film selected (Year, Director): Sorry for Kung Fu (2004, Ognjen Svilicic)
Rating: 7/10
Rules compliance: All rules met

Relevance to Soccer: Immigration & Citizenship regarding national teams

A boy is born in Rio. Growing up, he plays plenty of soccer just like all the other kids around him. But the young boy does not make much impact in a nation packed with too many talented players. As a 16 year old, the young kid travels to play football in Croatia. He joins one of the country's biggest clubs in Dinamo Zagreb, but once again he does not impress as much. He is loaned out to a small team for whom he starts scoring goals. Finally, someone is impressed! Dinamo recall him and give him another chance. The rest they say is history. He becomes the club's top goal scorer and is even given citizenship to represent his new home, Croatia. Once again, the goals start flowing and his 10 goals help Croatia qualify for Euro 2008. In the meantime, he gets transferred from Zagreb to Arsenal in the summer of 2007. This is the story of Eduardo Da Silva, the Croatian-Brazilian who is certainly one of the sharpest goal-scorers in Europe at a young age of 24.

But what if Eduardo had not left Brazil? He certainly would not have gotten a chance and his career would have been over even before it could have started. Is there anything wrong in Eduardo representing Croatia? No! One of the reasons people emigrate is to find better employment. At the end of the day, professional soccer is just another job even though it pays a lot more than jobs most soccer fans hold. But when it comes to soccer, there are some very ignorant attitudes regarding immigration and citizenship. Certain factions in soccer want a 'pure' representation, meaning people only born within a country should represent their nation and that no immigrants can play for their new country, even though the soccer players have gotten a valid citizenship. FIFA president Sepp Blatter is one such person who wants this so called 'pure' practice. But Blatter would not want to stop at the national level. He even advocates that European soccer clubs implement a quota system to limit the number of foreign players that can play for a local club. The argument for having a quota limit at the club level is that this would help promote local talent. Even though there is no evidence so far that foreign players are hampering the development of local talent. Still, these backward thoughts of quotas and pure representation continue in 2008, at a time when global movement of people is much more common.

I really wonder what people like Sepp Blatter would make of the Croatian boy in Sorry for Kung Fu. Because even though the boy is born in Croatia, he is not of Croatian blood. Is that enough to single him out? Unfortunately, that is what most of the local people in the movie do.

At the film's start, Mirjana returns back home to Crotia from Germany.


Even though she had problems with her parents when she left, they cautiously accept her back. Until she tells her father that she is pregnant. The fact that she is not married and pregnant is a matter of shame for Mirjana's father. Eventually, he comes to accept his daughter's decision and since the father believes the son will be of Croatian blood, he is willing to accept the child provided the baby can have a father. When the son is born, the rest of the family do not let the father see the baby fearing that he will not be able to handle the shock. But news of the baby's features spreads through the town and racial jibes follow. Mirjana has no choice but to leave town with her young baby.

I cannot help wonder if Mirjana's son grows up to play football and one day becomes a good player, will all the people accept him?


Will people like Sepp Blatter come out with a statement along the lines of that only people whose blood lineage runs all the way back to a nation's history should represent that nation in soccer games? I hope not. At the end of the day, soccer teams should pick the best players, no matter where they come from.

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The death of Heath Ledger is indeed a shock -- NY Times , Guardian, David Thomson's blog.

It will be strange to see his Joker role in the new Batman movie. I suppose the strangeness might be along the lines of seeing The Crow after Brandon Lee had died before the movie came out in 1994.