Based upon a true story, the film was shot on locations in Sri Lanka and Germany. The inspiration came from the actual case of the 2004 incident, where a fake Sri Lankan national handball team tricked its way into a German tournament, lost all of their matches, and subsequently vanished. Production spent several weeks speaking with people in the less fortunate areas of Colombo and used the people met through that research to create the backgrounds of the main characters. When director Uberto Pasolini heard of the incident, he stated "I fell in love with the story so much that I decided to shoot it myself". Under the working title of Handball, the film was produced and financed by Redgrave Films, RAI Cinema, Babelsberg Films, and Shakthi Films, and had its premiere at the Venice Film Festival in August 2008, where it received a 10-minute standing ovation. After the film completed its rounds of film festivals, it had commercial theatrical debut in Italy in September 2009, and was then picked up by UGC for theatrical distribution in Germany, France, Switzerland, Canada, Belgium, Norway and Sweden, and by Yume Pictures for theatrical release in the United Kingdom October 2009 and DVD distribution April 2010.
Synopsis
Two friends, Manoj, a bartender, and Stanley, a fruit vendor, wish to immigrate to the West to seek their fortune, but have difficulties getting their visa applications approved. They come across an application to a handball tournament in Bavaria, and not even knowing what the game is, they submit themselves and a group of friends as the "Sri Lanka National Handball Team". For appearance's sake, they begin minimal training and then seek travel visas from the German Embassy. Manoj leaves the group at the last moment, but the rest fly to Germany. Their plans to simply escape into the West upon arrival in Germany are thwarted by the quick appearance of the tournament organizers and an arena of fans eager to see the powers of the Sri Lanka National Handball Team. After losing the first matches without any goals, the team finally shoots a goal, which makes them overjoyed. The next morning, the police arrives and ransacks the hotel, but could not find any trace of the Sri Lankan Handball team. Later, it is shown that each member goes on his own path to various different countries in Europe.
The Sunday Times, rated the film four out of five stars, and wrote "The story was inspired by real-life events, but Pasolini goes all out to turn it into a big-hearted comic drama. Gusto and underlying honesty make it a winner." The Guardian began their review by writing, "There is more ingenuity, guts and brilliance in the developing world as depicted in Uberto Pasolini's film than anything Hollywood can cobble together." The reviewer wrote that the film was "one of the most important films to come out of the developing world in recent years", and one of the best films about illegal immigration that he'd seen. He praised the film's sense of "genuine authenticity", in its "rendering the reality of Colombo street life in all its vivid squalor, frustration, humanity and comedy", and noted that Sri Lankans have taken the film "to their hearts and claimed entirely as their own." Noting the film as being based on an actual event, the reviewer wrote "There had never been a single handball team in the whole country, let alone a national side, and the scam has to go down as one of the most ingenious illegal immigration ploys ever undertaken.
