The sheer inflation of sports documentaries has significantly lowered the threshold of what constitutes substantial material worthy of exploration. What sets this movie apart is the choice to release it in cinemas, when it really belongs on a streaming platform. That said, it's a competently assembled piece of work, which manages to capture glimmers of personality from its subjects and, arguably, achieves what it sets out to do: PR for the National Team and Romanian football. And looking at the crop of reviews published here on the 14th of May, the PR team has been doing some overtime.
Let's start with the upside: 2024 is a good year to be a football fan in Romania, as "Inima Nationalei" follows the nostalgia-driven and considerably more historically relevant "Hai, Romania!", about the Golden Generation of the 1990s. This time around, we're looking back upon today's national team and its path to Euro 2024, the first time Romania has qualified since 2016 to an event at this level of prestige.
Director Remus Achim interviews a fair few players that are a part of this new generation, which has shown moments of promise ever since it reached the semifinals of the 2019 EURO U21 competition. It's an interesting enough set of characters, blessed with varying amounts of charisma, but who have heartfelt origin stories and are distinctive enough to set themselves apart. Perhaps the main thematic focus, beyond the usual sporting fares about grit, determination and passion, is that of walking in the long shadow of successful parents - with Razvan Marin, Ianis Hagi and manager Edward Iordanescu all having to reckon with and justify themselves for illustrious father-footballers. And if there is any really memorable material in Inima Nationalei, it lies here.
The rest is a collection of montages from the matches and Iordanescu's motivational talks, which play repetitively and without any real dramatic pacing over the (surprising) 103 minute runtime of the film. Framed within the context of the team's revival after a couple of listless qualifying campaigns, one has to appreciate that Iordanescu has managed to assemble a good group of players, galvanizing both them and the fans with the undefeated qualifying run. As journalist Catalin Oprisan, who is the most entertaining character of this story, underlines though - it always feels like it's not quite enough, like pleasing the fans is a Sisyphean task.
Overall, I rate In Inima Nationalei as a satisfying production for the fans, that falls short however in finding a good dramatic structure and being ambitious enough to elicit emotional investment from the (neutral) viewer.
Let's start with the upside: 2024 is a good year to be a football fan in Romania, as "Inima Nationalei" follows the nostalgia-driven and considerably more historically relevant "Hai, Romania!", about the Golden Generation of the 1990s. This time around, we're looking back upon today's national team and its path to Euro 2024, the first time Romania has qualified since 2016 to an event at this level of prestige.
Director Remus Achim interviews a fair few players that are a part of this new generation, which has shown moments of promise ever since it reached the semifinals of the 2019 EURO U21 competition. It's an interesting enough set of characters, blessed with varying amounts of charisma, but who have heartfelt origin stories and are distinctive enough to set themselves apart. Perhaps the main thematic focus, beyond the usual sporting fares about grit, determination and passion, is that of walking in the long shadow of successful parents - with Razvan Marin, Ianis Hagi and manager Edward Iordanescu all having to reckon with and justify themselves for illustrious father-footballers. And if there is any really memorable material in Inima Nationalei, it lies here.
The rest is a collection of montages from the matches and Iordanescu's motivational talks, which play repetitively and without any real dramatic pacing over the (surprising) 103 minute runtime of the film. Framed within the context of the team's revival after a couple of listless qualifying campaigns, one has to appreciate that Iordanescu has managed to assemble a good group of players, galvanizing both them and the fans with the undefeated qualifying run. As journalist Catalin Oprisan, who is the most entertaining character of this story, underlines though - it always feels like it's not quite enough, like pleasing the fans is a Sisyphean task.
Overall, I rate In Inima Nationalei as a satisfying production for the fans, that falls short however in finding a good dramatic structure and being ambitious enough to elicit emotional investment from the (neutral) viewer.
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