Summer of '92

Denmark was not going to be at the European Championship; they had not come through the qualifiers. Then Yugoslavia is removed from the tournament and Denmark is called in to the empty place. Some of the players are on holiday. There is no time to prepare. The manager Richard Møller Nielsen is not liked by the press; his approach is found dull and he is at odds with some of the squad. The team goes to Sweden. The first matches are bad. Then something happens and they start going through. Meanwhile one player's daughter is in hospital and he is thinking of leaving the tournament. Kasper Barfoed directs. Ulrich Thomsen plays Møller Nielsen; Mikkel Boe Følsgaard, Cyron Melville and Esben Smed are in the cast. It is a Danish production. Its ground is real; Denmark won the 1992 European Championship and it is the best known sporting event in the country's history. The narrative does not dwell on the matches; its real subject is the dressing room and the strain between manager and squad. The film does not build the manager as a hero; he is stubborn, closed, and does not try to persuade anyone. The narrative uses real players such as Brian Laudrup and Kim Vilfort as characters. The line about Vilfort's daughter is its heaviest part and it happened in reality. The film drew interest in Denmark; the event is still a living memory there. The narrative follows the shape of the sports film and the result is known from the start. Its limit is predictability; the ending is known, the emotional steering high, and the characters shallow. Who it is for: viewers who like football films and sports drama drawn from real events. Who it is not for: it is conventional, the result known, and the ending a celebration.