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Films on football

An international football film package awaits Chennai-ites at the Max Mueller Bhavan from April 10 to 20

Here is good news for football enthusiasts. Max Mueller Bhavan in cooperation with the Tamil Nadu Football Association celebrates the forthcoming World Cup in Germany with "Das Runde im Eckigen" (The round into the square), an international football film package of the Goethe Institut.

The Goethe Institut, with the help of the Foreign Office, has put together the film package in movie format and on DVD, which consists of 12 feature films and documentaries, as well as 44 short films. The aim of the series is to encourage communication and to bring people together.

All films will be shown at the Max Mueller Bhavan (open air cinema) from April 10 to 20, 7 p.m. onwards. All films will have English subtitles.

So, the evening of April 10 belongs to the city's football community. Dirk Walther, Anna University, will host the event and Visswanathan, president, Tamil Nadu Football Association, will be the guest of honour. The screening of the film "Boleiros", directed by Urgo Giorgetti, will be followed by a reception.

The film revolves around Paulinho who once played with football greats Pele, Tostao and Edu. He is now reduced to offering his old medals for sale. A journalist anxious to write the story of an ex-sports hero gone to seed is trying to set up an interview with him. Paulinho, who has always had a reputation for being difficult, is now too proud to admit times are bad and accept help. But he demands 400 dollars in advance for the interview and gets them. The two men meet in a swanky restaurant. Paulinho appears in a brand new suit, behaving with the condescension of an old star. The journalist either too abashed or too tactful to prick the bubble fails to ask a single leading question.

The director divides "Boleiros" into six episodes, all of them centred on football. Despite its many moments of comedy, the parts add up to a rather melancholic whole.

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