Bend It Like Beckham

Colour, 35mm
United Kingdom, 2002, 112 min
Section: Horizons

Synopsis

If you’re 18, love Beckham and can bend a ball like him, the world’s your oyster, right? Wrong. If you’re Jess – 18, Indian and a girl – forget it. Do you think for a minute that your relatives, who are solely interested in getting you hitched as quickly as possible to some suitable young man, will allow you to play such a manly game as soccer? Especially when doing so would frustrate your sisters’ chances for an advantageous engagement? But one day Jess meets Jules, a girl the same age who is searching for new talent for a girls’ soccer team. Jules has her future all planned out. She’s going to make it to the United States where the girls get paid, get sponsorship and get the proper respect – and where they can turn professional. Jess and Jules very quickly become thick as thieves over their passion for soccer, and they’re both superb players. But problems arise when they both fall in love with their coach, and when Jess’s parents discover that their daughter is hiding something from them....

About the director

Gurinder Chadha not only directs, but also writes and produces her films, and in 1996 she appeared in The Stupids. She co-wrote her last two films with Paul Mayeda Berges. Filmography: Acting Our Age (1992), Bhaji on the Beach (1993), What Do You Call an Indian Woman Who’s Funny (1994), A Nice Arrangement (1994), Rich Deceiver (1995, TV), What’s Cooking (2000), Bend It Like Beckham (2002).