For the love of soccer

Egemen Ertürk's debut feature “Çıngıraklı Top” (The Ringing Ball) is a borderline emotion exploiter that performs quite pleasantly despite some of its excesses until that point at the very end in which the filmmakers transform their cute story into a slice of unnecessary arabesque.

I was smiling with amusement as I was watching this quasi-sports comedy until I was subjected to the bombardment of sentiment in the movie's final 10 minutes, thus I regret to say that I couldn't help ending up cowered with a sour expression on my face. They had taken away my feel-good moment, and I don't even know for what purpose.

The film follows a handful of blind people training for the Paralympics. Since everyone loves soccer in the country, the Bosporus Society for the Blind decides that their members will compete in the soccer category. And wouldn't you know it, we'll soon find out they will be competing against the Greeks! (But don't get me wrong. There's a lot of peaceful messages slipped into the film as the two teams will share some rakı the night before the final.)

The formula is simple and one we know from many team sports movies, especially Penny Marshall's “A League of Their Own” (1992), in which women trained to play baseball in war-torn 1940s America and the team's coach was an alcoholic has-been baseball star played by Tom Hanks. In “The Ringing Ball,” we've got women replaced with blind people and Hanks replaced by handsome stud Burak Önal as Kerem, who was once a soccer star but has now become the victim of the lure of alcoholism. The blind team is made up of a bunch of comedic misfits. As you can imagine, besides being impaired, these characters have to be eccentric and diverse in order to attract the sympathy of the audience. One team member is a blabbering Greek who doesn't know when to shut up, the other is obese (there are a lot of fat jokes), one dresses too flamboyantly (you wonder whether he is actually blind since his clothes are so intentionally kitsch), one is a woman, one is a small child... the list goes on. You start to wonder whether the team members should be regarded in light of their common handicap or for their melting-pot qualifications which are sufficient to qualify them to serve as United Nations goodwill ambassadors.

The point is, the team members are aching to play in the Paralympics, but they need a coach. In comes Kerem, the young athlete who might look like a bum but who is an ace soccer player -- he not only steals the hearts of the team but also that of the beautiful Semra (İpek Özkök), a young woman who, though not blind, works for the society. Unfortunately, Kerem has some thugs on his tail due to his past debts and his weakness for wine puts his coaching activities in danger. Alas, we are made to ask, will Kerem be able to take our blind friends to victory and will the brighter side of life overcome the eternal darkness of the blind? Also we are asked to believe that a ringing ball will be enough to allow blind people to play soccer.

The film has a lot of funny and sweet moments thanks to the enthusiasm of the actors who are playing the blind team members, and director Ertürk should be congratulated for portraying them with respect instead of pity. The last thing any proud disabled person wants is to be felt sorry for.

All is good in this department; however, the long sequences about Kerem's past failures and alcoholism ruin the mood of well-maintained joviality. His life is portrayed in such languorous melodramatic sequences that we're supposed to feel for his downfall. Honestly, why would anyone bother to empathize with a depressed grown man who has all his faculties intact after watching a dozen blind people full of life and vigor?

“The Ringing Ball” has the potential to reach the hearts of enough audience members; it tries to illustrate a positive message -- anyone can do anything. It's just that no one wants to watch an alcoholic overcome with self-pity if they're in the mood for regaining hope.