For last, saving the best of the best, of the best

Festival concludes with documentary on Brazil, and the world’s most famous man.

ISLAMABAD:

The final documentary shown during the Brazilian film festival was a biopic on Brazil’s former sports minister Edson Arantes do Nascimento. While little-known internationally for his work as a minster, the subject of Friday’s film may well be the most famous man in the world when referred to by his nickname – Pelé.

Condensing the life and career of the greatest player to ever walk on a football pitch into a two-hour long movie may seem an uphill task, but director Anibal Massaini Neto managed to show people, especially younger viewers, what few had ever seen before---the master at work.

Pelé Eterno (Pelé Forever) starts out with an introduction of Pelé’s parents, with his mother saying that his kicking in the womb was the first sign that the unborn Pelé would follow in the footsteps of his footballer father, Dondinho, himself a good player whose career was cut short by injury. Soon we move on to Pelé in his first uniform, for a street team called September 7.

Interspersed with details of his early life, Pelé narrates how one of his earliest memories of football is Brazil’s defeat to Uruguay, which cost them the 1950 World Cup. It was also one of the only times he saw his father cry.

The story then moves to Pelé’s time at Baquinho, his first professional team, before staff from Santos convinced his family to let the 15-year-old leave home in Bauru to move to coastal Santos. Now on trial at one of Brazil’s most storied clubs, his new teammates were initially taken aback by his hair, which “looked like a racehorse” but one training session later, he earned a full contract by destroying the first team’s defence.

Moving through his early days at Santos, the movie arrives at the 1958 World Cup in Sweden, where 18-year-old made Brazil’s best kept secret a public spectacle. Against Wales in the quarterfinal, he became the youngest player to score a world cup goal, before scoring a hattrick in the semis against France, and topping off with a brace in the victory over Sweden in final. It was Brazil’s first World Cup, and for a country that loves football, there was reciprocity at last.

With six goals in four games, Pelé won young player of the tournament, and a star was born.

The movie continues through his phenomenal career, with highlights of his greatest moments on the pitch and anecdotes off it. There are clips of him pulling off a double-nutmeg before scoring, and a goal against Juventus where he takes a cross on the bounce on edge of the box, passes three defenders and rounds the goalkeeper without letting the ball touch the ground, before heading into an empty net.

Beyond the focus on football are social elements, including Pelé’s pride in being black, and someone who helped break colour barriers while ignoring racists who would call him a monkey to throw him off. His answer to such abuse was always in goal-form.

The movie culminates with his thousandth career goal, followed by his show in his last World Cup, 1970, wherein as captain, he helped what is considered the greatest Brazil team ever steamroll to victory. Later, he helped introduce football to the US as a player for the New York Cosmos and held many honorary ambassadorial and government posts.

In the end, Pele, surrounded by family and teary-eyed after watching a clip of great footballers praising his play and his character, reminds viewers that talent aside, the three things that really made him the greatest football player to grace a pitch was “Love. Love. Love.”

Published in The Express Tribune, July 17^th, 2012.