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Balls (Männer wie wir) - Maximilian Brückner, David Rott, Lisa Maria Potthoff, Sherry Horman

Threat advisory: Severe - Severe risk of entertaining activities

Movie propaganda

Everyone gives his best part.

Ecki (Maximilian Brückner) is a young man who works in a bakery in Dortmund and plays soccer on his local team. Already under pressure for playing badly, his homophobic team members find out that he is gay and throw him off the team. With the help of his sister, Susanne (Lisa Maria Potthoff), and cranky former soccer star, Karl (Rolf Zacher), he tries to form an all-gay soccer squad to challenge his old team in a grudge match. Ecki's journey in self-realization is filled with wonderful surprises and interesting characters in this delightful romantic comedy from Germany.

Theatrical propaganda posters

Target demographic movie keyword propaganda

Film gay Germany soccer fussball football homosexual homophobia sport romance drama

Persons of interest

Dietmar Bär .... Father
Saskia Vester .... Mother
Maximilian Brückner .... Ecki
Willi Thomczyk .... Wirt
Jochen Stern .... Rentner Rudi
Judith Hoersch .... Cordula
Carlo Ljubek .... Udo
Mirko Lang .... Tobias
Tobias van Dieken .... Bernhard
Simon Solberg .... Frank
Lisa Potthoff .... Susanne
Hans Löw .... Klaus
Rolf Zacher .... Trainer Karl
Mariele Millowitsch .... Wirtin Elke
Nicholas Bodeux .... Ehemann
David Rott .... Sven
Andreas Schmidt .... Jürgen
Billey Demirtas .... Ercin
Markus John .... Tom
Christian Berkel .... Rudolf
Charly Hübner .... Horst
Marcel Nievelstein .... Jan
Michael von Burg .... Martin
Edesson Batista De Jesus .... Ronaldo
Edilton Pereira Da Cruz .... Ronaldino
Max Hopp .... Steffen
Benedikt Gollhardt .... Screenwriter
Sherry Horman .... Director

Cinematic intelligence sources

Balls (Männer wie wir) official movie sites:

Balls (Männer wie wir) film production notes
Balls (Männer wie wir) QuickTime movie trailers
Awards and film festivals:

LA Outfest 2005: Won: Audience Award: Outstanding Narrative Feature (Sherry Horman)

NB: German language dialogue with English language subtitles
Studios and distributors:

Intelligence analyst

Secret Agent Acid Thunder

Theatrical report

Before I get into my intelligence estimate, I would like to start with a few words to those of you who have read my previous reports. I never really left. In the words of Paul Baroli, "I've just had a 4½ year hiatus." For a long time I lost my way. The passion I had for expressing my thoughts was turned off and instead, I tried to vocalise my ideas. It was a good idea at the time; now it is time to find some balance. And now for the review.

Balls (Männer wie wir) should have been an Australian film. It has everything in it that we Aussies enjoy: diversity, minority heroes, worthy causes, the exploration of a taboo and blowing it wide open. Even though we are 6 years into the new millennium we are still living many social activities in the dark ages.

Imagine - and I know you can - what the world would be like if almost everyone was born homosexual and heterosexuals were the minority. To be blunt, I don't think things would be any different. At all.

Germany has a long and tortured history yet they have welcomed homosexuality far more than most countries in the world. Which isn't to say that homophobia doesn't exist because it does and this is where the film starts.

Ecki (clever name that, the good old disco biscuit) is a young lad growing up in small-town Germany. Like many country towns, homophobia is starting to decline but it isn't going without a fight. Ecki's soccer team (Go fussball!) is trying to move up a grade and blames Ecki when they fail. When he comes to terms with his sexuality he uses it as leverage for revenge against his former team-mates.

What started as a grudge match turns into a game of dissolving an age-old taboo: just because you shag your best mate doesn't make you any less tough. You are who you are; what matters is what you do with yourself, how you feel about yourself and how you express it to others.

I loved this movie: it's right up there with High art. It wasn't over the top, I believed that it happened, I see it every day. It's in the Convicts rugby team, it's in Kinky boots, it's in my life. Don't knock it 'til you try it.

The gay, Germany, soccer movie Balls (Männer wie wir) is directed by Sherry Horman and stars Maximilian Brückner, David Rott, Lisa Maria Potthoff.