Director cuddles up to Maradona in documentary

By Duane Byrge

CANNES (Hollywood Reporter) - Sarajevo filmmaker Emir Kusturica gives Argentine football legend Diego Maradona a big wet kiss in his new documentary, "Maradona by Kusturica," which screened out of competition at Cannes.

In thrall to the iconic soccer wizard, the director makes the film as much about his simplistic politics and rabid fans as about his playing career.

Maradona talks about his rags-to-riches rise to fame and the cocaine addiction he says prevented him from being an even greater player. But the director puts himself in the film quite a bit, and gives the impression that he just wanted to hang out with one of his sporting heroes and brag about it.

The film will do well internationally, and among those who share its anti-British and anti-American sentiments. But Maradona fans may be disappointed by the paucity of game footage. Many goals are shown, but we are not told when or where theyt were scored.

Except, that is, for the two goals Maradona scored against England on the way to winning the World Cup in 1986. He scored one by cheating, using what he famously described as the "Hand of God." The second resulted from a mesmerizing drive past several defenders and is labeled in the film the goal of the 20th century. They are both repeated several times.

Kusturica joins Maradona in his view that handling the ball was poetic justice for all the sins of the colonial English, and lets him ramble on about his love for Fidel Castro and hatred of George W. Bush.

The film includes footage of social protest in South America and the Balkans, and five cartoons targeting Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan are accompanied by the Sex Pistols' track "God Save the Queen." To what end. it's not entirely clear.

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter