Tigers 2020

Tigers 2020

Tigers 2020
1h 56m | Biography, Drama, Sport | 27 August 2021 (Sweden)

Storyline:

Martin is one of the most promising football talents Sweden has ever seen. At sixteen, his lifelong dream comes true when he is bought by one of Italy’s most prestigious clubs. Yet that dream comes at a very high price in terms of sacrifice, dedication, pressure and – most of all – loneliness. Martin begins to question whether this is actually the life he yearned for. “Tigers” is a life-and-death rollercoaster ride through the modern-day football industry. With a unique perspective on the world of professional sports, Ronnie Sandahl tells the true story of 16-year-old football prodigy Martin Bengtsson. A coming-of-age drama about a young man’s burning obsession in a world where everything, and everyone, has a price tag.

User review:

“Based on true events”, reads an opening title card. At 16, Swedish teenager Martin Bergtsson saw his dreams of becoming a professional footballer fulfilled when he was “purchased” for the Inter team from Italy. At 19, he was already out of the business by choice, after witnessing the ins and outs of a professional soccer team and suffering from depression. Accustomed to keeping a diary of notes of various kinds, for which he was even questioned by one of the coaches of the team, all that material took the form of a book and Bergtsson published «In the shadow of San Siro» at the age of 21, on which «Trigar» is based.

These are the brief details of a very simple and punctual story about a “football adventure”, which will open the eyes of those who want to open them a little, about the world of professional sports, whatever the sport, determined by supply and demand. With a handful of key characters played by a young cast and directed by a young Swedish filmmaker, the film works very well both as a diversion and as an eye-opening biography of how the “entertainment industry” can kill noble and sensitive spirits like Bengtsson’s – who, to cap it all, was born under the Pisces sun, which made him more vulnerable to everything he experienced; a transition witnessed by his girlfriend, a beautiful model; his African-American friend, his only pal in the team; the Italian owner of the team, two or three key players and a mother more lucid than the Virgin of Lourdes with the little shepherds included…

In a modern version of slavery, as seamstresses who live like prisoners in a Chinese textile factory where they work, these young men are subject to the business machinations of their owners and the cruel rivalry of their peers. Soccer has been “deprecated” as nonsense for a public that shouts “Goal!”, with closed eyes ignoring the events behind every game. And do not take me wrong: it is nothing against sport itself. It is about this phenomenon that they have turned it into, that stupefies us every time there is a game or a world championship, that has nothing to do with the ancient Olympic glories of ancient civilizations, such as the Greek or the Mayan. Recommended by someone who doesn’t lose sleep over football.

Director: Ronnie Sandahl
Writers: Ronnie Sandahl (screenplay by), Martin Bengtsson (based on the memoir “In the Shadow of San Siro” by)
Stars: Frida Gustavsson, Alfred Enoch, Liv Mjönes
Countries of origin: Sweden, Italy, Denmark
Languages: English, Swedish, Italian
Also known as: Tigrar