THE GOLDEN BALL

From Hollywood's output you might guess the most popular sport in the world is basketball. It's not. Soccer (the original 'football') is the international language of skill, strategy, and grand fun, from the mighty stadiums of Europe to a small West African tribal village where 11-year-old Bandian, a self-taught football prodigy, dreams of owning a genuine leather soccer ball instead of the plastic imitations at the market. Then a kindly Doctors-Without-Borders volunteer gives the boy a used ball, a simple act that sends Bandian on an adventure that changes his existence forever. This is no simplistic rags-to-riches tale; sometimes the right things seem to happen for entirely wrong reasons. Yet in the end it's the recurring image of a soccer ball that tells young Bandian he's reaching his life's goals. Joyous and unpredictable, THE GOLDEN BALL not only tells a wonderful story but provides a realistic glimpse at modern Africa and, in particular, Conakry, Guinea – a sister city of Cleveland. (In French with English subtitles) – Charles Cassady