back

Fotbal infinit

Infinite Football
Forum 2018
They talk about the beautiful game, but for Laurențiu Ginghină, it’s not enough. Football must be modified, streamlined, freed from restraints; corners are to be rounded off, players assigned to zones and subteams, norms revised. In retrospect, he first realized that the rules of football were wrong when he was tackled during a game in his youth, in the summer holidays, on another pitch now covered in snow, but in Vaslui, not Bucharest. The tackle hit so hard it fractured his fibula, a year later his tibia broke too, on New Year’s Eve 1987, he had to walk home in the snow and no one helped him. Today he’s a local bureaucrat with an uninspiring job, it’s no wonder he prefers to talk about the game, his own version of it, to Porumboiu, his friend, the director, who’s always listening, asking questions, nearly always in frame. Ginghină’s monologues are so rich you might think someone wrote them in advance, they proceed from the same old subject, but never stay in one place. All roads lead to football, but all roads lead away from it too, to land ownership issues, to orange farms in Florida, to political utopia and the traces left by life, to version 2.0, 3.1, 4.7, to infinity.
by Corneliu Porumboiu Romania 2018 Romanian 70’ Colour World premiere | Documentary form

Crew

Director Corneliu Porumboiu
Cinematography Tudor Mircea
Editing Roxana Szel
Sound Design Alexandru Dragomir
Sound Osman Petrisor
Producer Marcela Ursu

World Sales

mk2 Films

http://www.mk2.com http://www.mk2.com

Produced by

42 Km Film

http://www.42kmfilm.com http://www.42kmfilm.com

Photos

Corneliu Porumboiu

Born in Vaslui, Romania in 1975. He studied Film Directing. In 2006, he made his first full-length feature film, A fost sau n-a fost? / 12:08 East of Bucharest. Following Al doilea joc (2014), Fotbal infinit is his second feature-length documentary film.

Filmography

2000 Graffiti; 7 min. 2001 Love... sorry; 5 min. 2002 Post telefonic suspendat temporar (Telephone currently unavailable); 14 min. · Pe aripile vinului (Gone with the Wine); 9 min. 2003 Călătorie la oraş (A Trip to the City); 19 min. 2004 Visul lui Liviu (Liviu’s Dream); 39 min., Forum 2006 2006 A fost sau n-a fost? (12:08 East of Bucharest); 89 min. 2009 Poliţist, adjectiv (Police, Adjective); 115 min. 2013 Când se lasă seara peste Bucureşti sau Metabolism (When Evening Falls on Bucharest or Metabolism); 89 min. 2014 Al doilea joc (The Second Game); 97 Min., Forum 2014 2015 Comoara (The Treasure); 89 min. 2018 Fotbal infinit (Infinite Football)

Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2018