Nazidanie

It was a crucial moment in the history of sport. Our fall of the Wall. Our arrival of man on the Moon. An act as unexpected as it was unrepeatable. That night, 715 million people around the world turned on their TV to watch the live broadcast of a beautiful and legendary ending. However, disaster happened. Inexplicable, damned human condition. It was only a few minutes until the match ended when Marco Materazzi unleashed a few words that the whole planet tried to decipher. What did he say? Why did he say it? Zinedine Zidane hears the words. He turns around. Looks at Materazzi. And then the final, tragic and sublime act. The head-butt. The sending off. Leaving the pitch, back turning on the cup. Twelve years later, Russians filmmakers Aleksandr Shein and Boris Yukhananov return to the 2006 World Cup and retell it to us as if it were The Iliad, as if Zidane, Materazzi, the referee, the coaches and all the others were heroes or demons of ancient myths, as if that head-butt was the logical conclusion in a world incapable of believing in the political, in religion or in the media. In that unbelieving world, Zidane’s gesture became the greatest and deepest sermon of our times. FERNANDO VÍLCHEZ