Africa United

Iceland

2005

55 Min

Color

1.85:1

English, Icelandic

Currently 3.5/5 Stars.
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PROD Benedikt Jóhannesson, Olaf de Fleur Johannesson, Ragnar Santos

ED Benedikt Jóhannesson, Olaf de Fleur Johannesson

Zico came to Iceland from Morocco to seek his fortune. After ten years running his own small business, Zico goes bankrupt. Desperate and depressed he decides to fire up his amateur team called Africa United and take them into the semi-professional 3rd division. He calls upon immigrants all over Iceland, players from Morocco, Nigeria, Colombia, Serbia, Kosovo, Gambia and Guinea to help realize his vision. The road to success is rocky and mid-season Africa United has lost all games; their best player walks out and Zico decides to meet his role-model in football in England for advice. Having done so, he comes back with fresh ideas on how to approach his goals in life and football. —Poppoli Pictures

Director

Olaf de Fleur Johannesson

Olaf de Fleur (true name: Ólafur Jóhannesson) is an Icelandic film director and producer. He studied physics in Reykjavík, graduating in 1995. Since then he has participated in many film projects, including both feature and documentary films. After working for two years for a production company, focusing primarily on TV documentaries, he founded the independent production company Poppoli Pictures. Headed by Johannesson as director and producer, the team created Shining Star that won the “Best Documentary” in the Icelandic Film Awards 2004 and Africa United that won the same prize in 2005.

Among recent films by de Fleur are Act Normal, a film about a Buddhist monk who in the 10 years that took to film the project, disrobes, marries and divorces before becoming a monk again. A film about transsexuals in the Philippines and in Thailand, entitled The Amazing Truth about Queen Raquela won him the Teddy award for best feature film at the 58th edition of the Berlin International Film… read more