Africa United (2005 film)

Africa United
Directed by Ólaf de Fleur Jóhannesson
Produced by Ólaf de Fleur Jóhannesson
Benedikt Jóhannesson
Eva Maria Funch
Ragnar Santos
Written by Ólaf de Fleur Jóhannesson
Starring Einar Xavier Sveinsson
Saint Paul Edeh
Zakaria Anbari
Distributed by Poppoli Pictures
Release dates
  • 21 October 2005 (2005-10-21)
Running time
 80 minutes
Country Iceland
Language English, Icelandic
Budget $320,000
Box office $235,000

Africa United is an Icelandic documentary film by director Ólaf de Fleur Jóhannesson released in 2005. The film explores the life of Zakaria Anbari who moves to Iceland from Morocco in search of fortune. It won the Documentary of the Year at the 2005 Edda Awards. It also received nominations for Director of the Year and Script of the Year at the 2005 Edda Awards.

‘’Africa United’’ was filmed in Iceland, England, Morocco and Serbia.

The original musical score is by Barđi Jóhannsson.

Plot

Zakaria Anbari (Zico) has been playing football all his life. He came to Iceland from Morocco to seek his fortune. He starts his own business but it fails to take off after ten years, and Zico goes bankrupt and unable to find work. Left desperate and depressed, Zico decides to start an amateur football team, Africa United, and take them into the semi-professional third division. Initially, Africa United is asked to play in the out-of-division category by the Icelandic Football Association, but they were accepted into the third division after ten years. Zico calls upon immigrants from all-over Iceland, players from Morocco, Nigeria, Colombia, Serbia, Kosovo, Gambia and Guinea to form the team, Africa United. The players migrated to Iceland for various reasons, such as escaping war or to find employment.[1]

The team starts out by looking for sponsors to support them. They faced multiple rejections from companies, and their final hope is with Vodafone. The team creates a mock-up of an advertisement as a sponsorship pitch to Vodafone, which impresses the management and finally secures a sponsorship for Africa United.

The team encounters many setbacks throughout the season. By mid-season, the team has lost all their games thus far. Furthermore, the team constantly has strong arguments with each other, causing one of their best players, Zlatko (Zlatko Krickic) to leave the team and return home to Serbia to get married. Faced with the multiple setbacks, Zico decides to head to England to seek the advice from the Charlton Athletic Football Club manager, Alan Curbishley. With the advice from Alan, Zico comes back to Iceland with new ideas of leading the team and approaching his life goals.

The team is finally able to cooperate with one another, and Zlatko is persuaded by Zico to return to the team. After much trials and tribulations, the team finally achieves their first win in their last game of the season.

References

  1. ↑ Asami, Nakajima (8 October 2005). "I Want to Film People Who Are Unusual". YIDFF: Interviews: 2005. Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival. Retrieved 27 April 2016.

External links

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