I Choose to Believe

The Argentine national team goes to Qatar. The first match is lost and the mood at home turns; going out in the group stage is possible. Then the team recovers. The documentary shows that road from inside: the dressing room, the hotel corridor, training, the bus and after the matches. The players describe it in their own words. The night the trophy was lifted is there too; the final at Lusail, the penalties and the journey home. Ricardo Darín narrates. Gonzalo Arias produced; Martín Méndez wrote it and Ricardo Darín narrates. Lionel Messi, Lionel Scaloni, Ángel Di María and others from the squad speak in it. It is an Argentine production and runs about eighty minutes. The documentary opened in three hundred cinemas in Argentina on 7 December 2023. It is the official film of the Argentine Football Association; the material was taken from inside the camp. It went to streaming in January 2024. The matter it treats is expectation; the pressure of a country and how the players carried it are described. The documentary does not show the matches in detail; its real material is off the pitch. The narrative offers no criticism and does not step outside the official view. Another documentary about the same events opened in the same period. Its limit is method; the narrative is single voiced, celebratory, and the outcome is known. Who it is for: viewers who like football documentary and the Argentine team. Who it is not for: it is one sided, the outcome known, and the ending a celebration.