DVD review: Maradona
Ask the question: Maradona Who?
At one point in this documentary film, the documentary filmmaker Emir Kusturica (whom we see almost as often on the screen as the subject himself) muses over his decision to follow Argentina’s Diego Maradona with a crew for two years in order to make the film. “We were dreaming about who Maradona is…” he says, “and we’re still in the same place.”
It has to be said that the film does have a slightly dreamlike quality where it seems we are looking for something that perhaps doesn’t even exist. Clips of his famous goals are incorporated along with scenes of him in tears, overweight, swearing at a crowd. What we do find out is that Maradona is, and has always been, an incredibly complex character; a divine footballer, a political activist, a self-proclaimed actor, a presenter, leader, family man, drug addict and ‘his own worst enemy’.
His life in football, however, stands out as being a source of great pride both for him, and the thousands of fans that have followed him. Some fans have even turned their loyalty for him into a religion - we see some rituals being performed by the ‘Church of Maradona’, worshipping Diego as their Dios (Spanish for ‘God’). Indeed, going from a life of poverty to winning the World Cup was a dream few could have imagined he would actually achieve.
One thing that the majority of English people do already know about Maradona has a lot to do with his left hand. Whilst many will remember his infamous “Hand of God” goal in the 1986 World Cup as one of the biggest upsets in the history of international football, Maradona reminisces about it here with glee. It was a huge boost at the time to a country which had only recently been defeated by England in the Falklands War: “It was…like I’d stolen an English man’s wallet!”
At times in this documentary, Maradona comes across as arrogant, opinonated and only too happy to accept the label of ‘god’ which his fans have bestowed, but there are also moments of sensitive clarity when he reveals just how aware of his failings he really is; his regret of the cocaine habit which ruined both his relationships with his family and his footballing reputation, and almost killed him in 2004.
We’re left in no doubt that Kusturica himself is a fan of Maradona - the film has a sympathetic core in spite of its sometimes controversial discussion topics. Kusturica and the crew accompany Maradona to the “People’s Summit” -an anti-American protest- at the Mar Del Plata in 2005 and it is during the footage of these events that you come to realise what a hero Maradona remains to many of the people of Argentina.
The DVD is available from Optimum Releasing from September 7th 2009.
Documentary filmmaker Emir Kusturica
To submit a review of a book, course, film, magazine or website, please email judy@EssentialWriters.com
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