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The Second Half of the Season

An ex hooligan is about to discover that the worst violence in football doesn’t take place on the terraces, but in managers’ offices.

synopsis

Turin, 2006: the year and the place of the all-time biggest scandal in the world of sports. Stefano is a 32-year-old Ultrà (Italian for hooligan) who has just come out of prison and now wants to get something good out of his life. He has found a good business: a very young player with no contract that can make his fortune. Stefano can lean on the help of Marco, a friend of his who is associated with the Managers’ Association. The more Stefano gets into negotiation for the young player, the more he stresses the thin line that separates him from exploding into violence. He splits up with his girlfriend, he denounces his father as guilty of having caused him “emotional distress” when he was young. Stefano gets all the things he needs to close the deal, but the Managers’ Federation refuses his application request. This is the point when the anger of Stefano breaks out, taking his violence at a higher level. Immediately after this transformation, the football scandal falls upon the whole system, putting almost any football manager in Italy under trial.

Director’statement

I’m not a supporter, I do not watch football on TV, I have always kept my distance from this world until the “Calciopoli” scandal broke out in 2006 and highlighted a topic I always coped with. Moving down from the fact that I’ve never been really interested in football, I think you may know that I collected several interviews with Juventus and Torino teams retired Ultras. They’re all been very kind with me and very happy to tell their stories. Many of the episodes told in my script are taken from their talks. I’ve discovered nothing about the real reasons that lead the most radical ones to do what they do. I think there aren’t only few. Maybe for some of them it’s just a way of being someone. “Passion beyond any reason” is a paramount theme in my works. Passion is an energy that exists in any system and shows up randomly in various ways. The second half of the season is the story of a man who suffers for being taken away from his passions. Of course corruption is also an issue. Keep in mind that making a movie about soccer in Italy has the same meaning as making a movie about politics. Only for the bravest: in the story I keep the real name of the people involved in the scandal.

TFL PROGRAMME:
ScriptLab 2009
Discover more details here:
Download
PDF
TFL Catalogue 2009

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