MESSI

How can you make a documentary about the biggest soccer star in the world when the star in question doesn’t want to be in it? Cult director Alex de la Iglesia came up with a smart solution. In this kaleidoscopic portrait, he avoids the classic interview scenarios, choosing instead to put his protagonists in a restaurant with the instruction to eat, drink and talk about Lionel Messi. The tables are packed with old friends and soccer colleagues from his time on the Rosario team, his former teachers and youth trainers, teammates from FC Barcelona, Argentine football stars of yesteryear, journalists, Messi experts and of course the unavoidable Johan Cruijff. While Barcelona midfielder Mascherano wonders what it would be like to be Messi just for a moment, Cruijff puts a swift end to the eternal discussion about who is the best player of all time: “Thank goodness for Messi, otherwise we’d still be talking about Maradonna”. The conversations are interspersed with dramatizations of key moments from Messi’s youth: from the expensive hormone therapy that accelerated his difficult growth to his controversial move to Barcelona. Messi slowly comes to life through the lively discussions in the restaurant, reenactments and archive material. We get to know a shy boy who never lost his childlike love of play and who went on to become the hero of an unlikely adventure story.