Born on the High Seas

Type: TV – Documentary
Director: Sascha Köllnreitner
Length: 90 min
Status: in production

A documentary about the substantial contrast between the glittering world of international soccer against the realities of life for millions of migrants. Now turned football idols, but once migrants, the players who know both worlds all too well will paint a picture of our times that will give us food for thought, while taking us on their journey through identification and self-discovery.

Soccer, one of the most popular sports in the world, is the result of passion, team spirit, perseverance and community. However, soccer is also a hotbed of conflict, where religious euphorias clash and political resentments instrumentalize teams and players. How do the main protagonists move and feel in this field of discrepancies? How do they combine the roles of „idol“ and „foreigner “, of being heroic figures on one hand and a target for racism on the other?
Can they use their status to combine these two poles and have a positive effect on society?

The journey that our main protagonists had to travel until reaching their first professional soccer team goes beyond a typical athletic career. Coming from a wide range of cultural backgrounds and from sometimes difficult milieus, a career in sports promised to help them to break through social barriers imposed by their origin. Intimate insights reveal the multi-faceted people behind the Panini stickers.