ARGENTINA CINEMA AND FOOTBALL

About Program

Because football is the beautiful game.

Because football is the only thing that can broker a peace and launch a war, unite and divide a city, gather the world's attention and provide total anonymity, tell a thousand stories in 90 minutes or one story in a lifetime, focus our concentration, lose our selves, make us cry in joy and sadness and sometimes both, reveal the value of teamwork, the thrill of individual talent, the fruits of dedication, the cruelness of limitations.

Because it is universal.

Because film is the only medium that comes closest to capturing all of that.

Because we give ourselves to film, as we do a match: for 90 minutes, even when we know how the story ends, to see our favorite characters and perchance spy a moment or two of beauty, of brilliance.

Mission of the “Kicking & Screening Football Film Festival” based in New York

Argentina produced the first club, first national association and first league in South America. These early days of the game were marked by a heavy British influence, a fact which is still reflected in the English-language names of a number of teams. The sky blue and white found in the AFA emblem is also found in the national jersey and both pay homage to the sky blue and white flag of Argentina. This sky blue and white color combination is the translation of a nickname sometimes given to the national team - the Albicelestes. Since British immigrants first introduced football to Argentina in the late nineteenth century it has grown in popularity to become one of the country's biggest passions. Argentina has produced some of the world's best football players who have gone on to play for many different international teams. Argentine football has united the country on an international level, most notably when they hosted and won the 1978 world cup and Mario Kempes starred as the goal scoring hero. Similarly Argentine football was recognized as some of the world's best when Diego Maradona led the country to victory in the 1986 world cup tournament. Nonetheless, as in many cases, football in Argentina has served to divide on a national level, with a history of some of the fiercest football rivalry between teams and fans ever to be witnessed.

This film program Argentina: Cinema and Football, organized by Pera Film in collaboration with Argentine Embassy in Ankara, Cervantes Institute in İstanbul and the INCAA - Argentine Film Board aims to engage, connect, and inspire soccer and film enthusiasts through the celebration and presentation of the football culture. The program entails five interesting films, four documentaries and one fiction.