My Name Is Francesco Totti

The documentary gives the life of Francesco Totti in his own telling: a footballer who came out of the edge of Rome, played twenty five years at one club and never went to another. It runs from childhood to the farewell match in 2017. Alex Infascelli directs. The formal choice decides everything. There are no talking heads in the film: no pundit, no teammate, no journalist. There is only Totti's voice and archive footage. The narrative runs in the first person and the viewer sees the events only as he describes them. The archive is wide: match recordings, television programmes, family video and news footage. The edit arranges them by feeling rather than chronology. The best section is the transfer offers. Totti refusing to go to Real Madrid, and explaining why, accounts for the choice at the centre of his career. The limit of the method is equally clear. With a single voice there is no counter view; the contested periods and his tension with the club are told only from his side. The farewell match is the emotional peak and is already strong as footage. Who it is for: viewers who like football documentaries and are curious about what Roma means to its supporters. Who it is not for: there is no critical distance, the narrative is entirely the subject's own construction, and there is little entry point for anyone not interested in football.