https://youtu.be/l-cXxqLW3rg (no subtitles)
An intriguing film which gives some degree of insight into the importance and significance of violent toxic masculinity, focusing on rival gangs of ‘soccer fans’ whose team support is no more than an excuse to take part in violent fist fights while also being involved in criminal enterprises such as drug running. With two brothers (one a major gang leader the other a police officer - and the latter’s ex-girlfriend also a police officer) the scene is set for plenty of familial conflict. It also shows the great difficulty of breaking away from such groups, particularly if one was brought up in the sort of ghetto that breeds such people. It did successfully, a rather chillingly, convey how the violence could give the gang members a sense of being alive and feeling emotion - even, intriguingly, with the policeman brother who rejoins the gang to be an undercover informant. And his conflicts are well explored and quite sympathetically too.
It was interesting to see the (too brief) scene between the main gang and the chairman of the club. Their mutual complicity seemed intriguing but it was, rather disappointingly, not really explored in any way - more a brief acknowledgement of it. A lost opportunity - or the focus for another, different film perhaps?
There is a visceral intensity in the performances although visually and stylistically the film is not as creative as it could be, particularly with the scenes of violence -it seems to hover between an occasional degree of stylisation and a gritty documentary feel and as a result there is.an occasional ragged sense in stylistic consistency.