Ginga is the spirit of Brazil, a mentality “of fighting hardships with…toes, heels and hips”. Ginga: The Soul of Brazilian Football hopes to show how this particularly Brazilian trait makes for the world’s most consistently outstanding football team through the profiles of 10 different, especially ginga rich people.
At first, I thought it would be a look into what makes Brazil so amazing at football. Instead, it was a display of the Brazilian love of life, their passion for whatever they do and the excellence this mentality reaps. Never has one film made me feel so out of shape and complaisantly over privileged at the same time.
There has been a real effort to cover an interesting cross section of Brazil, spanning gender, age, economic status, culture and spirituality to show how universally ginga is a Brazilian trait. Be they rich, rural or even handicapped, it doesn’t matter; ginga flows through all of their lives.
It displays the skill of the 10 it follows and the passion they have for their chosen ginga outlet like football, footvolley or capoeira. While they are all massively talented and show impressive ginga, it plays more like an audition tape for those featured. Unlike recent release Next Goal Wins, Ginga is more football than documentary so those without much care for the sport may feel slightly under involved.
This under involvement also spreads into the film making where the involvement of Nike really shows. There is plenty of soul and heart to be found, instead of being a documentary that investigates, its displays. While I didn’t know anything about ginga going in, what I left with was a knowledge of its existence and a definition, not a greater insight as to its historical context or deeper meaning to Brazil culturally.
While Ginga works as a great warm up for the fast approaching World Cup, is a wonderful visual spectacle of raw talent and is a must see for every die-hard football fan, it isn’t a doc that offers much insight into its subject.
Ginga is available on DVD now
Ginga: The Soul Of Brazilian Football from Mr Bongo on Vimeo.
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