A rousing youth film by Soleen Yusef about an eleven-year-old refugee girl from Syria who has to assert herself at her new school in Berlin’s Wedding district and proves to be an excellent goalkeeper.
FAST FACTS:
• First feature film by Soleen Yusef since „House Without a Roof“ from 2016
• Opening film of the Berlinale series „Generation Kplus“
• Great youth cinema, shot on location in Wedding
• Reference films: „Kick It Like Beckham“, „The Teachers‘ Lounge“, „Sun and Concrete“, „The Flying Classroom“, „Bibi & Tina – Mädchen gegen Jungs“, „School of Rock“, „Systemcrasher“
CREDITS:
Country/Year: Germany 2024; Running Time: 119 minutes; Director & Screenplay: Soleen Yusef; Cast: Dileyla Agirman, Andreas Döhler, Fatima Hamieh, Sherine Ciara Merai, Manasse Kiefer, Samira Hamieh, Dominic John Brandl; Distributed by: DCM; Release: April 11, 2024
REVIEW:
Eight years after making a splash with „House Without a Roof“, Soleen Yusef has made another feature film, just as personal and passionate as her 2016 film debut, but also recognizably and tangibly the work of a mature filmmaker who has left a mark in recent years as the director of groundbreaking German series such as „Skylines“ (with Maximilian Erlenwein), „Deutschland89“ (with Randa Chahoud) and most recently „Sam – Ein Sachse“ (with Sarah Blaßkiewitz). She incorporates everything she has learned and newly acquired in the meantime and a wealth of experience and professionalism into this new work based on her own script, a project close to her heart, a „Bend It Like Beckham“ straight outta Wedding, which, depending on your perspective, can be seen as a close relative of „The Flying Classroom“, „Sun and Concrete“, „The Teachers‘ Lounge“ or „Bibi & Tina – Mädchen gegen Jungs“, but which is always only committed to itself and its story.
It tells the story of the Syrian refugee girl Mona (Discovery: Dileyla Agirman) who had to leave her Kurdish homeland with her family in the turmoil of the civil war and now has to find her feet in Berlin. At her new school, she is initially treated with hostility and laughed at until she succeeds in gaining the respect of the other girls as a gifted goalkeeper. That sounds straightforward and perhaps simple. But nothing is simple in „Winners“. Just as nothing is given to the characters for free, nothing is given to the movie for free. When progress is made, it is well-deserved and hard-earned. But there are just as many setbacks. Soleen Yusef, who herself as a nine-year-old had to leave her Kurdish homeland with her family for political reasons in order to settle in Berlin and go to school in Wedding, knows the world she is talking about and for which she finds very direct and fresh images with her regular cameraman Stephan Burchardt („Munich“): Combined with the dynamic, at times associative editing by Marty Schenk („Next Door“), a modern, fast-paced, sophisticated film unfolds that has a powerful pull, both narratively and emotionally.
Because Yusef also knows exactly how to never lose sight of her storyline, which is the backbone and nerve center. But it is precisely this straightforwardness that enables her to tell many other stories along the way, to take the necessary detours, to sprinkle in associative flashbacks, all in order to condense the narrative, to tell and impart knowledge without lecturing or laboriously packing on messages. „Teamwork makes the dream work“, Mona says at one point in one of the many moments in which she breaks through the fourth wall and speaks directly to the audience in perfect, accent-free German, as she hears it in her head, but still finds it so difficult to communicate to those around her in conversation. As a viewer, you experience how the girls and ultimately the whole class grow together.
But much more than that. The fighting spirit of the whole Monas family, their fascinating dynamics. The commitment of a teacher (great: Andreas Döhler as the dedicated Mr. Che, more like Fräulein Novak than Zecki Müller) for his pupils in a supposedly problematic school. The struggle of a German boy for acceptance in a class that rejects him as „different“ because of his appearance. Soccer as a unifying factor that transcends all differences. But no matter which aspect Soleen Yusef focuses on, the film is always carried by her empathetic and loving gaze, her hope and conviction that things can change if only you are able to get off your own high horse. Her work with the young cast is exemplary, as they are allowed to grow beyond themselves, also because each of the girls and boys is allowed to be their own and prove themselves in the course of the film, not just film debutante Dileyla Agirman as Mona. You take each of them to your heart.
The fact that the film finally ends with a superbly staged soccer match, where the round has to go into the square and the film succeeds in squaring the circle, also wonderfully closes a circle in the history of youth films: a soccer match was also the memorable highpoint of Ken Loach’s legendary „Kes“ from 1969, another example of committed and understanding filmmaking that describes being a child as a constant obstacle course in a world that simply doesn’t want to understand you. All you have to do is listen. Or watch. As in the case of the wonderful „Winners“, which just recently opened the „Generation Kplus“ series at the Berlinale to great acclaim and will now – fingers crossed – hopefully also strike a chord with the target group in theatres.
Thomas Schultze