Here! Films has acquired North American distribution rights to director Robert Douglas' Icelandic soccer dramedy Eleven Men Out. Written by Douglas and Jon Atli Jonason, the film centers on a soccer star who comes out and joins an amateur team of gay players. Here! Films sister company Regent Releasing will release the film theatrically in the summer.
- 3/27/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
NEW YORK -- This Iceland/Great Britain/Finland co-production is infused with typically deadpan Nordic humor.
The story of an Icelandic soccer team that is shocked when its star player comes out of the closet keeps camp antics to a minimum.
Instead of hamming it up in the locker room, director Robert I. Douglas focuses on the tribulations of an eccentric band of players, managers and families as they try to cope with the soccer hero's sexual revelation.
Eleven Men Out, which screened at the New Directors New Films Festival, has thoughtful and funny characters, something that should give this droll drama appeal beyond a niche gay audience.
The story, which is nicely textured, begins when top Icelandic soccer star Ottar Thor (Bjorn Hlynur Haraldsson) decides to tell the world that he is gay in a magazine article. Ottar is consequently relegated to the substitute bench and ends up playing for a team of gay amateurs. Meanwhile, his young son (Ottar was married to an Icelandic beauty queen) has difficulty coping with the media attention his father is receiving. The film climaxes in a match between the amateur and pro teams on Gay Pride Day.
Most of the humor results from a motley group of straight players and conservative administrators struggling with the concept of a gay soccer star. Although a strong theme of discrimination underpins the film, it is gentle rather than bitchy fun. The drama comes from Ottar's fractured relationship with his young son, who is hurt by his father's decision to go public and upset by the gibes he now has to face at school.
It is a pleasantly liberal film all round. Ottar's detractors aren't driven by any moral positions; they simply think that a gay player will be bad for their soccer club's image. His young son is upset by his decision to tell the media that he is gay but accepts his homosexuality.
The story of an Icelandic soccer team that is shocked when its star player comes out of the closet keeps camp antics to a minimum.
Instead of hamming it up in the locker room, director Robert I. Douglas focuses on the tribulations of an eccentric band of players, managers and families as they try to cope with the soccer hero's sexual revelation.
Eleven Men Out, which screened at the New Directors New Films Festival, has thoughtful and funny characters, something that should give this droll drama appeal beyond a niche gay audience.
The story, which is nicely textured, begins when top Icelandic soccer star Ottar Thor (Bjorn Hlynur Haraldsson) decides to tell the world that he is gay in a magazine article. Ottar is consequently relegated to the substitute bench and ends up playing for a team of gay amateurs. Meanwhile, his young son (Ottar was married to an Icelandic beauty queen) has difficulty coping with the media attention his father is receiving. The film climaxes in a match between the amateur and pro teams on Gay Pride Day.
Most of the humor results from a motley group of straight players and conservative administrators struggling with the concept of a gay soccer star. Although a strong theme of discrimination underpins the film, it is gentle rather than bitchy fun. The drama comes from Ottar's fractured relationship with his young son, who is hurt by his father's decision to go public and upset by the gibes he now has to face at school.
It is a pleasantly liberal film all round. Ottar's detractors aren't driven by any moral positions; they simply think that a gay player will be bad for their soccer club's image. His young son is upset by his decision to tell the media that he is gay but accepts his homosexuality.
- 5/19/2006
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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