São Paulo – Hamoudi, a ten-year-old Iraqi boy, loves football. A fan of Barcelona’s and Argentinean player Lionel Messi, he loves to practice the sport, even though he only has one leg. In 2009, He waits anxiously to watch the Champions League final, between Barcelona and Manchester United, to see the match between his idol and Portuguese Cristiano Ronaldo, but his television breaks.
This is the story of Baghdad Messi, a co-production of Iraq, United Arab Emirates and Belgium, which will be shown for the first time in Brazil during Cinefoot – International Football Film Festival. The event will be held between May 22nd and 27th in Rio de Janeiro and afterwards goes to two other Brazilian capitals.
The movie is from 2013, lasts 16 minutes and is directed by Iraqi Sahim Omar. The work of fiction is among the 22 short films taking part in the festival’s short film competition. The movie will run against 12 Brazilian productions and 10 foreign ones, from countries such as Spain, Holland, France, Germany, England, Japan and Argentina. The winner takes the Cinefoot cup.
Cinefoot is in its fifth edition. This year, the festival will have three tributes: the 100-year anniversary of the Brazilian national team, the 60-year anniversary of the yellow soccer jersey and the twentieth anniversary of the fourth championship Brazil has won. The number of films has also broken a festival record, with 132 pieces enrolled.
The opening session, on the 22nd, at 8:30p.m, at Espaço Itaú de Cinema, will show the Uruguayan production Maracanã, The Movie. The film brings never before seen images of the World cup final in 1950, when Brazil lost 2-1 to Uruguay playing in the stadium in Rio de Janeiro’s capital. The session will be attended by the movie’s directors Sebastián Bednarik and Andrés Varela.
The festival also has a feature film competition. A total of 16 movies were selected, 12 Brazilian and four foreign ones. The foreign productions competing this year come from Germany, Bulgaria, France and an Italian-Argentinean co-production.
After Rio de Janeiro’s capital, the exhibition will go to São Paulo, from May 29th to June 3rd, and to Belo Horizonte, from May 30th to June 4th. In June, there will also be the Cinefoot Tour, an exhibit which will go to the 12 host cities of the World Cup bringing some of the movies exhibited during the festival.
Cinefoot is endorsed by the Ministry of Sport as part of the federal government’s official promotion plan during the World Cup 2014.
Service
Cinefoot – International Football Film Festival
Opening: May 22nd, at 8:30p.m
Place: Espaço Itaú de Cinema – Botafogo Beach, 316
Rio de Janeiro
The full Schedule for Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and Belo Horizonte is available on the website www.cinefoot.org (Portuguese and English)
All the movie sessions have free admission.
The Baghdad Messi movie trailer is available on the link http://vimeo.com/54278152.
*Translated by Rodrigo Mendonça
