Synopsis
Mona had to flee Syria with her Kurdish family. Germany and Berlin are still foreign to her but what the eleven-year-old finds strangest, is her new school in the rebellious district of Wedding: anarchy reigns there. The pupils bully the teachers and their classmates, are obnoxious to everyone, don't feel like doing anything - and no longer believe in a rosy future. Mona realizes that Wedding means peace and freedom, but also frustration, aggression, and a lack of prospects.
When a football tournament for all Berlin schools is about to take place, the dedicated class teacher Mr. Che notices her great talent for football. Kicking a ball was already her great passion back home. Mr. Che, a picture-book lefty and idealist, brings Mona into the team. But playing together with the other girls is more difficult than expected: although each girl fights for herself, they can only win together. Mona finds her place more and more: in the goal, in the team, at school and in her new life. The underdogs from Wedding get the big chance to show the whole of Berlin who plays the best school football in the city - and for the first time, get a taste of what it would feel like to be a winner.
Statement of the director(s)
WINNERS (SIEGER SEIN). A family film, a lesson and an appeal to young and old, that aims to inspire and give hope. We are born into different lives, meet different people, challenges and obstacles, but at our core we always strive for the same things: recognition, dreams, love and happiness. While social inequality often makes this pursuit more difficult, but it is not impossible. This is proven to us by HERR CHE, MONA and the girls' team from the primary school in Berlin-Wedding.
Guided by Mona as a narrator, who often can only answer for her actions in her head, as she does not yet speak German, we accompany the team as an ensemble to their joint victory. The supporting characters play an equally important role and paint a larger picture of the environment. Despite the serious subject matter, this picture is not dark and socially dramatic, but bright and multi-faceted. It is not a cinematic study of society, but a story that follows its own rules and is both authentic and entertaining. This starts with the characterization. Mona's very unique, ironic and sometimes overly adult perspective as a newcomer to Germany makes the experience of the story and its characters special. The new life, the city, the school, the students, the teachers, the education. Everything is different. Quite intimidating. Only on the soccer field do the same rules apply everywhere. Here Mona finds refuge, belonging and her place in the new world. She becomes the new goalkeeper of the girls' school team. In other words, the keeper of the goal. Does she live up to her position? Can she overcome internal and external obstacles and rise above herself? Together with Mr. Che and her team, her journey is picking up speed. As outsiders and underdogs, they fight their way to the top of the table together, until they finally face the deciding game. The audience can experience and feel the path to this goal as thrilling, emotional and funny. Like a rollercoaster ride. One moment you're cheering and laughing like there's no tomorrow, and the next you're fed up and want to get off. A cinematic world that allows for big emotions while also shedding light on political and social issues from different angles. Because even though the characters are children, their circumstances and fates are taken seriously to make WINNERS work as a great success story.
As a further recipe for the narrative distinctiveness, I worked with DOP Stephan Burchardt to find a strong visual language that is dynamic, close and colorful, but not too colorful and kitschy, and here too the world of children is captured.
Combined with soulful music and sound worlds, composed by David Menke and Boris Rogowski and together with musicians and performers from Germany and Kurdistan, a world full of impressions and memories has been created that is memorable and hard to forget.
All in all, it is a tribute to my teacher back then, after my family and I fled in 1996 and arrived in Berlin-Wedding, and the story of my football team, which I celebrate. WINNERS should be about solidarity and the hope of a better life.
