In 2004 Hungary joined the European Union. Sixteen years later its National football team managed to qualify for the second time for the UEFA European Championship, drawing the spotlight of the whole world back on the Nation. However, this time the team is not led by a Hungarian but by an Italian coach, Marco Rossi who has not always been a national “hero” loved by fans, players and politicians. For the first fifty years of his life, Marco was a professional who had to fight to stay in the football world, first as a player and then as a coach. A companion and father who had to make sacrifices, leave his own country and stay very far from his family in order to follow a dream. The documentary traces Marco’s career as he coaches the Hungarian national team for the 2022 Nations League. During the competition, the team proves to be cohesive and combative, bringing home numerous victories until, in the match that will determine whether or not the national team will advance to the final stages, Hungary will face the italian team.

Marco’s story is the story of a man who has become a hero in a totally unconventional way. A professional who had to recover from numerous defeats before feeling like a “child at the amusement park”, as he himself tells us in an interview. Here we are not telling a success story, or the rise of an athlete whose greatness was recognized at an early age, but the story of a man who, despite many failures, with sweat, fatigue and sacrifice persevered to achieve his goals, and now that he’s finally got what he’s always worked for, he finds himself facing a showdown. This time, however, he is not alone. His story and that of Hungarian football culture, in fact, run parallel: both managed to rise from a state of defeat and mistrust to gain dignity and respect in the eyes of the world. The aim of the documentary, through the character of Marco Rossi, is to show how football and sport can be fundamental for the rebirth of a country as much as of a person, and how the hero is not only the one who raises trophies, but the one who is able to get back up after a defeat.

Director
Francesco Inglese
Story
Francesco Inglese
Screenplay
Francesco Inglese, Giovanni Chianelli
Director of photography
Ádám Pataki, Alessandro Dominici
Altri credits

Federica Tudisco (Archive Producer)

Cast and characters

Marco Rossi, Cosimo Inguscio, Matyas Molnar, Andras Gal

Production Director
Stefano Chiavarini
Organizzatore generale
Producer
Mattia Puleo, Elena Ciofol, Gianmaria Fiorillo, Francesco Inglese.
Production
Cinefonie, Meleagris
con il sostegno di Film Commission Torino Piemonte - Piemonte Doc Film Fund - sviluppo giugno 2022, produzione dicembre 2022
Last update: 09 October 2024