Focusing on the Polish national football team, the documentary is about the sports world and globalisation and a behind-the-scenes look at the Euro 2012 championships. Following the players around the clock, Marcin Koszałka, the cinematographer, screenwriter and documentary film director, reveals the competition, pressure and responsibility weighing on the Polish competitors during the matches. Among the film's main characters are the trainer of the Polish team, Franciszek Smuda, and Grzegorz Lato, national football legend from the 1970s.
The film shows places and moments that haven’t been captured by any other camera. Despair, hope, friendship and conflict between the players – You’ll Be a Legend, Man is an uncensored work that shows the Euro championships through the eyes of the players. The protagonists are Damien Perquis, a Polish-French player who struggled to adapt in the Polish professional level, and Marcin Wasilewski, a "tough guy" and "life and soul of the party".
But Koszałka’s documentary goes beyond drawing their portraits, it presents the story of the collective protagonist: the football fans. Koszałka says,
As a director, I’m interested in making films that are critical, which show a certain counterpoint between embarrassment and pride. The protagonists of my film are the football players, but not only autochthonic Poles but also players from abroad who recently received Polish citizenship. […] They come from France and don’t speak Polish while their colleagues don’t look at them in a friendly way. What I would really like to do is to bring the fact that the world is becoming cosmopolitan - that there are no borders and no one language - to the attention of the viewers. […]
Presented at the DOKweb festival, the programmers write, "Marcin Koszalka's film attempts to look at the guts of Polish nature, interwoven with paradoxes, contrasts and contradictions. Having the best cameramen ready to record the art of football right there on the pitch, the director employs the whole frenzy to reflect on the proud nation." You’ll Be a Legend, Man was filmed long before the Euro, during the Polish team’s preparations for the tournament. Once the tournament began, the crew followed the players in the hotel they were staying in, and filming continued in fan zones. Three chief cameramen participating on the project: Wojtek Staroń, who was shooting in Warsaw, Arkadiusz Jakubowski and Przemysław Kamiński in Kraków and Wrocław. Koszałka said before the shooting,
The camera accompanies the protagonists before, during and after the Euro. [...] I prefer to talk about what is theoretically considered Europe’s worst team than about those who are considered the best because from the point of view of a filmmaker that is more interesting […]. I will strive to attain a universal message, about people under pressure, about the expectation of proud fans, about an Eastern Europe where the perception about foreigners who are becoming Poles is changing.
Marcin Koszałka (born 1970) is a documentary filmmaker. His very controversial debut, Such a Beautiful Son I Gave Birth To (1999), brought him to the forefront of Polish filmmaking. In 2010 he made the award-winning film Declaration of Immortality - a portrait of "Crazy" Piotr Korczak, one of Poland's most accomplished climbers, who came up with many new techniques for mountain climbing.
Będziesz legendą, człowieku / You’ll Be a Legend, Man was co-produced by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute.
Sources: based on the Polish article for culture.pl, DOKWeb
Editor: MJ