Winners

Using football as her vehicle, director Soleen Yusef references her own refugee tale through the poignant journey of an 11-year-old’s new life in Germany.

Having fled Syria with her Kurdish relatives, Mona feels like a fish out of water at her school in Berlin: a rough-and-ready institution where teachers struggle to rein in an unruly cohort. Picked on by her classmates, Mona eventually finds her feet … with a soccer ball. It’s not long before her talents are recognised by Mr Chepovsky (or “Mr Che” for short), who recruits her as goalkeeper to try and turn the girls’ team’s fortunes around.

Drawing on her own experiences of playing street football and fleeing Iraqi Kurdistan as a child, Yusef juxtaposes flashbacks to Mona’s life in Syria with her sometimes dizzying surroundings in Germany – though the director goes beyond the images of danger and turmoil often associated with the former. In turn, despite no prior acting experience (as is the case with the entire young cast of Winners), Dileyla Agirman adeptly imbues Mona with humour and infectious energy, best reserved for tactful asides of breaking the fourth wall. Nominated for Best Children’s Film at the German Film Awards, Winners is an energetic reminder that, in the game of life, everything begins with taking a shot.