Playing Men - True/False Film Fest

Playing Men

A sometimes winking, sometimes eye-opening cabinet of curiosities of peculiar sports, gorgeously shot all over the Mediterranean.
Director: Matjaž Ivanišin
Runtime: 1:01
In-person: director Matjaž Ivanišin
Fest Year: 2018
Men wrestling with each other in a grassy field, giant wheels of cheese rolling down stone-cobbled streets and boys yelling until they are hoarse in a rapid-fire finger game are just the tip of the iceberg in this rollicking, regional sports tour throughout the Mediterranean. Matjaž Ivanišin’s gorgeously photographed film lays out all the rules of the game before immersing us in the middle of the action. Just when the film has established its rhythm, however, the director finds himself in the middle of an existential crisis. Its resolution involves a marvelous and riotous celebration on the beach in Split, Croatia, where all of the testosterone and hero worship come to a head. Plays with “They Just Come and Go” (dir. Boris Poljak, 20 min.), a richly atmospheric short about the beach in Split that goes from the libidinous to the elegiac. (AS)