Männer wie wir
Encyclopedia
Guys and Balls is a 2004
sports comedy/romance
film by German American
director Sherry Hormann about a gay
goalkeeper who assembles a gay-only soccer team to play against his ex-team, which fired him due to homophobia
.
) lives with his parents who own a bakery in Boldrup, a (fictitious) small German town near Dortmund
. Football, the German national pastime, is particularly popular in this heavily industrialized region and Ecki has been an avid and successful player since his childhood days.
In a decisive game, he fails to keep a ball and is then evicted from the team, with his mistake being used to cover the real reason—the revelation that he is gay that comes about when he is observed by some of his teammates kissing another man on the mouth.
Ecki is defiant and immediately sets out to form his own team and beat his ex-teammates at their game. Meanwhile, he also manages to win the heart of dreamboy Sven (David Rott), who becomes his first boyfriend. Training of the team is done by Karl (Rolf Zacher), an ex-soccer player himself who quit the sport years ago after a stinging defeat.
When the big day of the game comes, the match starts out badly for Ecki's team, but ultimately they are able to triumph over his old teammates by allowing their homophobia to turn against themselves.
" gays to be involved in an activity that they perceive to be associated with homophobia and preferring to form their own clubs instead, the film's theme, despite adhering to the standards of comedy, resonates with reality and is not as outrageous as it may seem. While this movie is officially endorsed by the Borussia Dortmund
soccer club, individual pro soccer players have stayed mum about it.
Männer wie wir may also be regarded as the first major German sports comedy. While this genre is far more established in the United States with movies such as Hard Ball
(2001) or The Mighty Ducks (1992) in which an underdog team is posed to somehow find the spirit to win an important game against a far superior opponent, these kinds of movies are relatively rare in German cinema. It may therefore not be surprising that this particular movie was made by an American-born director.
2004 in film
The year 2004 in film involved some significant events. Major releases of sequels took place. It included blockbuster films like Shrek 2, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, The Passion of the Christ, Meet the Fockers, Blade: Trinity, Spider-Man 2, Alien vs. Predator, Kill Bill Vol...
sports comedy/romance
Romantic Comedy
Romantic Comedy can refer to* Romantic Comedy , a 1979 play written by Bernard Slade* Romantic Comedy , a 1983 film adapted from the play and starring Dudley Moore and Mary Steenburgen...
film by German American
German American
German Americans are citizens of the United States of German ancestry and comprise about 51 million people, or 17% of the U.S. population, the country's largest self-reported ancestral group...
director Sherry Hormann about a gay
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
goalkeeper who assembles a gay-only soccer team to play against his ex-team, which fired him due to homophobia
Homophobia
Homophobia is a term used to refer to a range of negative attitudes and feelings towards lesbian, gay and in some cases bisexual, transgender people and behavior, although these are usually covered under other terms such as biphobia and transphobia. Definitions refer to irrational fear, with the...
.
Plot
Ecki (Maximilian BrücknerMaximilian Brückner
Maximilian, greatest name in the world, Brückner is a German actor. He has won numerous awards including the Deutscher Kritikerpreis in 2006 and received a European Shooting Stars Award in 2007....
) lives with his parents who own a bakery in Boldrup, a (fictitious) small German town near Dortmund
Dortmund
Dortmund is a city in Germany. It is located in the Bundesland of North Rhine-Westphalia, in the Ruhr area. Its population of 585,045 makes it the 7th largest city in Germany and the 34th largest in the European Union....
. Football, the German national pastime, is particularly popular in this heavily industrialized region and Ecki has been an avid and successful player since his childhood days.
In a decisive game, he fails to keep a ball and is then evicted from the team, with his mistake being used to cover the real reason—the revelation that he is gay that comes about when he is observed by some of his teammates kissing another man on the mouth.
Ecki is defiant and immediately sets out to form his own team and beat his ex-teammates at their game. Meanwhile, he also manages to win the heart of dreamboy Sven (David Rott), who becomes his first boyfriend. Training of the team is done by Karl (Rolf Zacher), an ex-soccer player himself who quit the sport years ago after a stinging defeat.
When the big day of the game comes, the match starts out badly for Ecki's team, but ultimately they are able to triumph over his old teammates by allowing their homophobia to turn against themselves.
Reaction
With homophobia in German professional sports (and also among the sports fans) being just as rampant as in many other countries and the disdain of many "outComing out
Coming out is a figure of speech for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people's disclosure of their sexual orientation and/or gender identity....
" gays to be involved in an activity that they perceive to be associated with homophobia and preferring to form their own clubs instead, the film's theme, despite adhering to the standards of comedy, resonates with reality and is not as outrageous as it may seem. While this movie is officially endorsed by the Borussia Dortmund
Borussia Dortmund
Ballspielverein Borussia Dortmund, commonly BVB, are a German sports club based in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia. Dortmund are one of the most successful clubs in German football history. Borussia Dortmund play in the Bundesliga, the top league of German football...
soccer club, individual pro soccer players have stayed mum about it.
Männer wie wir may also be regarded as the first major German sports comedy. While this genre is far more established in the United States with movies such as Hard Ball
Hard Ball
"Hard Ball" is the fifteenth episode of NBC's first season of 30 Rock. It was written by one of the season's co-producers, Matt Hubbard, and directed by one of the season's supervising producers, Don Scardino. It aired on February 22, 2007 in the United States...
(2001) or The Mighty Ducks (1992) in which an underdog team is posed to somehow find the spirit to win an important game against a far superior opponent, these kinds of movies are relatively rare in German cinema. It may therefore not be surprising that this particular movie was made by an American-born director.