The Match ★★½

CROATIAN/American co-production The Match is based on a dramatic, real-life moment in history.

The so-called football ‘Death Match’ was played between Dynamo Kiev and a German Nazi side in 1942.

The Hungarian team won the game but various historical records claim players were executed as a result of the Nazi regime’s humiliation.

There have been a few previous film versions loosely based on the match, most notably Escape to Victory in 1981.

Unfortunately, lack of budget and pedestrian direction results in this 2021 attempt being only slightly above average.

The events are framed by an old man, played by Franco Nero, recounting the story to his grandson as some kind of life lesson about the value of football which seems to be a lessening on the real events.

Nero’s character is actually a boy who was saved a couple of times by the captain/coach of the team who, in this version is interrned in a prison camp in 1944.

Andrej Dojkić plays Laszlo Horvath who I couldn’t really work out was a real player or not.

The Colonel in charge of the camp is a football fanatic who decides it would be a great idea to have a rematch at the celebration of Adolf Hitler’s coming birthday.

The events that follow should be interesting and dramatic, but they play out with little tension and the majority of the characters are just cut-outs.

This results in minimal emotional involvement by the audience.

Perhaps somebody will make a great version one day. It definitely has the basis to be much better.