Tuesday 11 January 2011

The 9th Pune International Film Festival (PIFF) Pick: Old Boys (Denmark)

8/1/2011
Screened at 1200 hours, Inox


A road movie with pleasant twists and turns, pathos, humour and love, the rigours of senility, Old Boys (2009) tells of a group of old men in Denmark who stumble, pant and swear through their football practice. There is an exasperated middle-aged coach whom nobody listens to, yet he still keeps at the pep talk. Preparations are on for the annual game, where the team plays another ageing police team in neighbouring Sweden. The story focuses on Vagn, the team's depressed, unmarried goalie, even as he is forgotten by the team at a gas station and has to hitch a ride from a young man, who makes a living, eh, robbing gas stations. The other strand of the story follows the antics of the rest of the team on the bus on their way to the game. Real as they come, despite some contrived part, Old Boys is an entertaining watch.

As the independent movies screened at PIFF have shown, again this year, that neither Hollywood or 'Bollywood' can claim to have made movies with such disarming sincerity.       

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