Parky at the Pictures (DVD 20/9/2018)

During the making of his debut feature, Mediterranea (2015), Carpignano had his car stolen in the coastal town of Gioia Tauro and his attempts to recover it from the nearby Gypsy settlement prompted him to script a loose sequel, A Ciambra. Executive produced by Martin Scorsese and produced by Carpignano's father, Paolo (who grew up in this neck of the woods), this provides positive proof that the glorious tradition of neo-realism is alive and thriving, as Carpignano elicits performances of raw power and dogged energy from a non-professional cast led by Pio Amato, who now forms part of an unholy trinity of scene-stealing juveniles with Enzo Staiola  from Vittorio De Sica's Bicycle Thieves (1948) and Salvatore Cascio from Giuseppe Tornatore's Cinema Paradiso (1988). 

Fourteen year-old Pio (Pio Amato) lives in a Roma ciambra camp outside Gioia Tauro. In the heyday of his grandfather Emiliano (U Ciccareddu), the currency was horses. But cars pay the bills for Pio's father, Rocco (Rocco Amato), and older brother, Cosimo (Damiano Amato). In addition to mother Iolanda (Iolanda Amato) and older siblings Riccardo, Simona, Antonella and Susanna, Pio also lives with nephews and nieces Nicolas Damiano, Patrizia, Cosimo, Gesuele Massimo, Cristina and Francesco Pio. He helps the latter melt down some copper wire, while trying to fire up an old motorino. But he can't afford the petrol to make it work.

Kids of all ages buzz around the outbuildings, cheeking their elders and smoking like chimneys and Pio revels in the bustle and bravura. At the disco, he runs into his Burkinabe buddy Ayiva (Koudous Seihon), who teases him about his crush on a teenage single mother and tries to force him into kissing another girl on the dance floor. But Pio is more interested in what Cosimo is up to, as he suspects he has a deal on the go. 

The next morning, the cops raid the camp and everyone scampers around to hide their illegal activities. Pio unhooks the wires siphoning off free electricity before jumping on the back of Cosimo's scooter. He shows him the car he has just stolen and asks Pio to ride lookout on the scooter while he drives it to the chop shop run by his pals. As the mechanics work, Cosimo gives Pio a crash course in how to hot wire a vehicle and disable any security devices. 

Back at home, Iolanda chides her daughters for drinking too much wine, while she chugs down a beer. They joke that they have started eating like Italians before the conversation turns to the African migrants staying near the town and the womenfolk admit to being intimidated by them. During supper, however, a couple of members of the local `Ndrangheta network, come to ask Cosimo if he has stolen a black Fiat Punto with a rabbit sticker and he assures them that he only picks up cars in Reggio.

Sceptical, the gangsters inform Cosimo that they have lined up a burglary for him in a big house at the Tonnara. Pio rides along in the flatbed van, but jumps out before they reach the address and doubles back to climb the fence. Scared off by a barking dog, he runs into a snooping neighbour, who apprehends him and calls the Carabinieri. Wriggling free, Pio makes his escape across the fields and reaches home at first light. He sees the cops descend and returns home in time to see Cosimo being bundled into one car and Rocco into another, when the cops rumble his electricity scam. 

Iolanda hollers about discrimination as her husband and son are driven away. But Pio knows he has to complete Cosimo's deal for a white Fiat and calls the man from Turin (Paolo Carpignano) who commissioned the theft. While he waits for the customer to call back, Pio overhears a `Ndrangheta minion ask Iolanda to return the car for a cut of the ransom money. However, Pio knows he can make more by selling it and asks Ayiva to help him when he can't spark the engine. They park it near the station and Pio conducts the negotiations with hard-faced aplomb for someone who can't read or write. 

Returning home, he slaps the money on the kitchen table when Iolanda browbeats him for taking such a risk. He stalks out and joins Keko at a card game, where he drinks and smokes alongside the grown-ups. During the night, however, the cops raid the house looking for some stolen copper and Pio has to move quickly to sneak the stash away. When he gets back, he sees the senior officer hand Iolanda a €9000 bill for the stolen electricity and she knows she doesn't have enough to pay. 

Pained to see his mother in such distress, Pio steals a suitcase from a train at the station and asks Ayiva if he knows someone who wants to buy a tablet. His friend Jennifer (Faith Uchenna Eburu) has a friend in Rosarno and they travel by scooter because Pio refuses to go by rail (as he is scared by anything that moves too quickly, like lifts). Too embarrassed to enter a squat, Pio waits for Ayiva by his bike and is disappointed only to get €70 for the trade. He's also stung when Ayiva insists on keeping some money for petrol and sulks on the pavement when his friend threatens to leave him to make his own way home. 

Unhappy that Pio is having to break the law to help her. Iolanda accepts the cash in glum silence. But Pio is delighted that he has cash for petrol and is able to get the motorino going. He also finds another bike in a shed and takes his cousins for rides around the compound, as his grandpa looks on. However, time is money and Pio needs to make more cash to help his mother. He finds a laptop in another suitcase and asks Ayiva to fence it for him. But he is having Skype problems with his sister and daughter and Pio realises how little he knows about his friend and his problems. 

Ayiva introduces Pio to Kingsley (Kingsley Asimung) at a tented camp on the edge of town. He also needs a television and Pio agrees to deliver the one Ayiva has in his lock-up. He doesn't want to discuss his private life and heads off to work, as Pio lugs the set across town on his head. Kingsley is delighted to see him and invites him to watch the game with his friends. Jennifer recognises him and explains that she is Nigerian, but everyone else is from Ghana. They chant Pio's name when their team scores and he has a whale of a time smoking and drinking with his new mates. When Ayiva arrives, he crouches down behind him so that Jennifer can push him over and he smiles at the boy he has become fond of since they first met when Ayiva was picking fruit. 

Next morning, Pio has a hangover and craves a cuddle from Iolanda, who joshes him about trying to be a man too soon. After a kickabout with his cousins, Pio helps grandpa in the garage. The old man confides that the Roma used to be free on the open road and laments being stuck in a permanent site. He also reminds Pio that the rest of the world is against them and he bears this in mind when a couple of `Ndrangheta heavies tick him off for nearly walking in front of their car. But what drives the message home is an encounter with a grey dappled horse on the road, as he walks home after helping Ayiva, and the vision of his youthful grandfather riding the animal around a blazing bonfire, as a symbol of the pride and freedom of their people. 

The next morning, Pio is woken with the news that grandpa has died and Rocco and Cosimo are allowed to attend the funeral. The `Ndrangheta boss, Raffaele (Pasquale Alampi), comes to the church to pay his respects and Pio resents the fact that they treat his family as inferiors. As the kids sing around a bonfire that night, Pio tells Cosimo that he has been the breadwinner while he's been inside and asks if they can start stealing together. However, his brother is disdainful and Pio vows to prove his worth by breaking into Raffaele's house. He throws a football over the fence in order to watch the code being tapped into the security gate and, when the capobastone takes his children out to dinner, Pio sneaks inside and fills a bag with valuables. 

Unfortunately, he is caught in the garden and driven home to face a humiliating audience with his entire family. Raffaele warns Pio that he will kill him if he ever steals from him again and orders Iolanda to pay compensation for the damage. Rocco is so furious that he throws Pio out of the house and he hammers on the gate in shame and frustration. He sees Emiliano and his horse at the end of the road and hears the clop of hooves, as they walk into the distance. However, a bike gang zooms in from the opposite direction and torches an outbuilding in reprisal. As the menfolk carry buckets to douse the flames, Pio cycles off to find Aviya and is grateful when he allows him to spend the night at the squat. 

Next morning, he receives a call from Cosimo and they meet on a rooftop at the abandoned housing estate abutting the ciambra. As his brother explains how Italians have more time for the Roma than the despised migrants, Pio accepts that he has to do something to earn back his family's trust. But he is horrified when Cosimo orders him to help burgle Aviya's lock-up and can't understand why everyone is so prejudiced against the Africans. Patrizia seeks him out to offer her support and she follows him to the railway station when he goes to steal some luggage. Spotting her on the train, while he is making his getaway, Pio jumps back into the carriage and leads her to the toilets to hide from the guard. He sweats profusely, as the train speeds along and Patrizia holds his hand when they disembark at the next station and make their way home without any loot. 

As dusk descends the next day, Pio sees the truck arrive to collect Cosimo and cycles off to distract Ayiva. He crashes his bike and calls Ayiva to tend to the cut he has sustained on his forehead. Huge tears trickle down Pio's cheeks, as the Burkinabe cleans the wound and asks what's bothering him. The boy clings to Ayiva, as he takes him home on the back of his motorbike and rests his head on his back, as he suspects these will be the final moments of their friendship.

But Cosimo is pleased with his efforts and, when Pio bridles on being teased about almost being a man, Cosimo pays for his younger brother to be fellated by a motherly backstreet prostitute. He returns to the ciambra next morning and Iolanda examines his forehead with unfussy affection. Walking on, Pio is faced with a choice of hanging out with the kids or joining Rocco and the grown-ups at the garage. In milky sunshine, he opts for the latter and a protective hand slaps him on the back, as he follows his father inside.

Reuniting Pio Amato and Koudous Seihon after their brief encounter in Mediterranea, Carpignano uses their colour blind bond to examine in intimate detail the hand-to-mouth existence of so many disenfranchised minorities on the margins of Italian society. Surrounded by relatives, Amato is on screen for much of the picture, with cinematographer Tim Curtin keeping tabs on his every move, as he ducks and dives in a bid to keep his family fed while his father and brother are behind bars. However, as the handheld close-ups of his wonderfully watchful face suggest, he is still very much an uneducated and impressionable kid and his dangerous errors of judgement betray his lack of understanding of his place in the macho underworld hierarchy. 

Chatting with engaging overlapping spontaneity, the remainder of the Amato clan are also natural performers, with Francesco Pio having a cocky insolence that is matched by Patrizia's sympathetic concern and Iolanda's world-weary maternalism. But Seihon also impresses, as the wheeler-dealing Africa whose own problems reinforce Carpignano's contention that so many find life a gruelling struggle. Yet, while he cannily notes that the migrant crisis has allowed the Roma to move off the bottom rung of the social ladder, Carpignano rather clumsily uses the visions of grandpa and his horse to emphasise the freedom that the travelling community has sacrificed in return for a smattering of security. 

Amato's loss of innocence with the voluptuous middle-aged hooker also feels unnecessarily heavy handed. Nevertheless, with Dan Romer's eclectic score providing a driving accompaniment to Affonso Gonçalves's muscularly skittish editing, this remains an unflinchingly authentic and unsanctimonious study of the everyday reality of grinding poverty.

Restored in 4K for Blu-ray release, Wim Wenders's debut feature, The Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick (1971), is an adaptation of Peter Handke's cult novella, Die Angst des Tormanns beim Elfmeter. Coming two years after his graduation film, Summer in the City (1970), this boldly downbeat non-thriller feels like something that neo-realist doyen Cesare Zavattini might have written for Alfred Hitchcock. Despite its limited release outside West Germany, this `completely schizoid film, right in the middle of everything' established Wenders among the bright young things of Das Neue Kino and forged a link with the Austrian author, who would go on to contribute to the screenplays of The Wrong Move (1975) and Wings of Desire (1987).

Joseph Bloch (Arthur Brauss) is playing in goal in a lower league fixture. He scarcely seems interested in the play and ticks off a couple of lads messing around on a bench behind his net. Yet, when the opposition scores a goal he does nothing to prevent, Bloch protests so vociferously to the referee that he's sent off. He takes a streetcar into Vienna and buys a cinema ticket before checking into a modest hotel. Intrigued by cashier Gloria (Erika Pluhar), Bloch returns to the cinema, which is showing Howard Hawks's stock-car saga, Red Line 7000 (1965). However, she drives off with a friend, leaving Bloch to return to his hotel. 

Mooching around the next day, Bloch buys a paper with the football results and gets chatting to Maria (Marie Bardischewski), while pondering a jukebox choice in a bar. He tells her a story about a player who disappeared while trying his luck in America and she is suitably charmed to take him back to her apartment. Riding in the lift, he unbuttons her top and she licks the corner of her mouth in anticipation. But we quickly return to the pavement, as Hertha goes to meet a friend and Bloch takes a taxi to the Prater. He is attacked by a couple of blokes outside the market and repairs to a washroom to tidy up before returning to the cinema to discuss the plot of a movie about counterfeiters with Gloria. 

After the screening, Bloch sits on a palette and waits for Gloria to appear beneath the marquee advertising The Tremor of Forgery. He follows her on to the bus and she invites him back to her flat. She lives near the airport and he is woken by the sound of the planes the next morning. In turn, Bloch wakes Gloria with the shower and she tells him about her dream, in which she was wearing a dress made out of banknotes that caught fire and had to be extinguished. They exchange names over breakfast and she tells him about the time she went to a football match (on the day Sharon Tate was murdered) with a customer who had chatted her up after she had given him a seat behind a pillar. Bloch responds with the story of the time he had sat in a puddle after one of his defenders had scored an own goal. 

They seem to be getting along nicely, as Gloria plays American music on her record player and relates the story of the postcard he examines beside the mirror. He looks out of the window at the planes landing, as Gloria asks him if he has to go to work. Toying idly with a length of rope, she lies coquettishly on the bed and loops the rope around Bloch's neck to pull him towards her. However, he suddenly wraps his hands around her throat and the screen goes black. When he wakes from a nap leaning against the bed, Bloch pays no heed to the lifeless corpse, as he uses a blue handkerchief to wipe his fingerprints from the objects he has touched around the room. In his haste to leave, however, he fails to spot a coin half covered by a newspaper on the table. 

Having picked up his bag from the hotel and been quizzed by a policeman for knocking a cinema usher's torch out of his hand for waking him up, Bloch catches a bus. The woman sitting next to him (Rosl Dorena) notices the coins that have fallen on the seat through a hole in his checked jacket pocket. He explains that they are so dirty because they were used for the toss during his team's recent tour of America. At the end of the line, Bloch checks into a hotel and asks Anna the waitress (Libgart Schwarz) if she knows the whereabouts of the inn run by his old lover, Hertha Gabler (Kai Fischer). She informs him that the inn is close to the border, as she gives him a room above a bowling alley. 

Next morning, Bloch notices that Gloria's murder has made the front page of the newspaper. So, he turns to the story of a missing mute boy that is dominating the local news. He buys some shirts and underwear from a shop in the village and walks to the Border Inn, where he is served by a surly waitress who is babysitting Hertha's four year-old daughter while she sleeps. She is surprised, but pleased to see Bloch and they make small talk while she smokes at his table. However, he returns to the village to spend the night and has a misunderstanding with Anna when she comes to clean his room. Bloch tries to explain that he didn't mind her coming in, but she is too busy for idle chatter. 

Back at the Border Inn, Hertha is also frustrated by Bloch's silent fidgeting, as she tries to peel apples in the kitchen. Her daughter wakes from a nightmare about flies under her pillow and Herthan tells Bloch that some of the neighbouring children have been telling her scare stories while staying with them because there has been a death in the family. Bloch tries to lure Hertha into the bedroom, but she's not in the mood. 

Waking next morning in his hotel room, Bloch tries to interest another guest in a stone he has picked up. However, the man says it's worthless and Bloch kills some time by visiting the salon, where hairdressers Monika Pöschl and Sybille Danzer give him a mixed reception. He wanders through the countryside and holds his nerve as a policeman passes on a moped. Bored with playing patience at the inn, Bloch watches the odd job man (Rüdiger Vogler) hauling beer crates before looking around the big house on the edge of the village. 

Having vomited in the sink, Bloch comes down for breakfast to read that the police consider an American coin left at the crime scene to be a major clue. Distracted, Bloch scarcely hears Anna telling him that the missing child has been found floating in the river. But he manages to retain his composure while calling his coach to find out details of a training camp. He wanders down to the bridge over the river and sees two cops taking a bearded Gypsy into custody. Headind for the railway station bar, Bloch chats to Pöschl and Danzer. He tells them about a dream involving fire extinguishers before hitching a ride to the next town to watch Richard Widmark and Henry Fonda in Don Siegel's Madigan (1968). 

Returning to the inn, Bloch gets into a fight with one of the customers and is set upon by three of his mates in the pouring rain. They dump him outside the police station and ring the bell, but the duty officer is unconcerned. Having dried out, Bloch rejoins Gloria, who is doing her accounts in the kitchen. It's 2:30am and he tears the date off the wall calendar, only to learn that Gloria has already done it. She brings him some bread and cold cuts and he chomps on a sandwich, while she tends to her daughter, who has woken up and wants a candle in her room. When she finds Bloch rifling through drawers, she snaps at him for being a nuisance and she's relieved when he decides to wander back to the hotel with the cop, who has popped in to borrow an umbrella. 

As they walk, the cop describes how he watches the body language of suspects to judge which leg they are going to launch from when they run away. Yet, for all his boasting about being highly observant, he has no suspicions about Bloch, who makes a half-hearted pass at Anna, as he heads to bed. She is on duty again the next morning and informs Bloch that the cops have released the Gypsy because the boy slipped into the river by accident. He is more interested in the police sketch of their prime suspect in the cashier strangling and Anna suggests that any sensible culprit would have grown a beard to change his appearance. 

Strolling briskly through the village, Bloch goes in search of a call box. But the phone is out of order and he slumps down on the bus stop bench to read the paper. He betrays little emotion, as he reads the newspaper report about the net closing in. But he refuses to panic and wanders into the local football ground and takes a seat in the stand. He asks the man next to him about the teams, but he is a travelling salesman and has no idea about their form. As they watch, the referee awards a penalty and Bloch explains the psychology of saving a spot kick and the salesman nods when the keeper blocks the shot. The camera pulls away from the seating, as Bloch continues to watch the match and play a waiting game with his pursuers. 

Long withheld from international audiences because of rights issues pertaining to some of the classic oldies on the mono soundtrack, this gripping drama has never been given its due as one of Wim Wenders's finest achievements. Set in the kind of border country he would revisit in Kings of the Road (1976), it bears a passing visual resemblance to Alfred Hitchcock's Torn Curtain (1966), although the grislier moments are staged off camera. But Jürgen Knieper's score unmistakably pays homage to the works of Bernard Herrmann, as it grumbles its accompaniment to Robby Müller's stealthy camera moves. Moreover, Wenders is more interested in the American influence on Western Europe, as he dots the action with images of jukeboxes, motorcycle gangs, bowling pins and cinemas showing Hollywood movies, including an unmade adaptation of a Patricia Highsmith study of apprehension and guilt that chimes perfectly with the picture's unsettling timbre. 

Symbolising a culture ill at ease with itself, Arthur Brauss excels as the ironically named Joseph Bloch, who sounds as though he has drifted out of a Kafka or Camus novel into a backwater that deceptively offers sanctuary and freedom, while actually entrapping him. The supporting cast similarly inhabits the milieu with a deadpan naturalism that allows the undercurrent of bleak humour to seep through and highlight the audacious lack of suspense. Production designers Burghard Schlicht and Rudolf Schneider-Manns Au and editor Peter Przygodda similarly reinforce the sense of deliberation, which the latter would bring to numerous Wenders features up to Don't Come Knocking (2005). He died in 2011 and Müller's death last week casts a pall over a reissue that should be cheered to the echo, as it fully deserves the epithet, `lost masterpiece'.

It's a fair bet that there are several gay players plying their trade in the top four divisions of English football. But the odds on any of them coming out would tax the numerous bookmakers whose adverts clutter the bulk of UK sports coverage. The price footballers have to pay for suppressing their sexual preferences has already been explored in Ben A. Williams's 2016 adaptation of John Donnelly's play, The Pass. But Swiss film-maker Marcel Gisler reveals what's at stake for the clubs involved in a potential scandal in Mario, a polished, but predictable drama that concludes a gay trilogy that started with Fögi Is a Bastard (1998) and Rosie (2013).

Swiss striker Mario Lüthi (Max Hubacher) has worked hard to get into the Under-21 team at Young Boys of Bern. He is put out, therefore, when coach Roger Maillard (Joris Gratwohl) and his assistant, Hélio Bomcampo (Manuel Pereira) introduce the squad to fellow forward, Leon Saldo (Aaron Altaras), who has joined the club from Hanover with a view to moving him into the first team at the end of the season. As they know that promotions are rare, teammates like Luc Columbier (Fabrizio Borsani) and Claudio Lafranconi (Scherwin Amini) are resentful and even Mario has his doubts when Leon hogs the ball in training. However, they get chatting on the tram into town and agree to work together to secure their starting positions. 

Mario lives in Thun with parents Daniel (Jürg Plüss) and Evelyn (Doro Müggler) in a mountain chalet and they are consulting with agent Peter Gehrling (Andreas Matti) about their son's future. He also has to deal with the expectations of old friend Jenny Odermatt (Jessy Moravec), who would like them to become more intimate. She is up for a job as a costume maker at the local theatre and, when the club move the pair into a twin apartment, Jenny teases Mario than Leon is handsome. They get along well enough, but Mario is concerned that Leon isn't taking his talent seriously enough and dines on pizza and beer while he is eating steak and salad. He also thinks he should practice more with his left foot, as does Daniel, who used to play in the lower leagues and sometimes annoys Mario because he thinks he knows it all because he did some coaching. 

Unable to sleep one night because of the hear, the flatmates play a video game and Leon tries to put Mario off by tickling him. He also kisses him and Mario stalks off to his room in shock. The next day, however, they pretend nothing happened over breakfast and combine for the goal that beats the reigning champions. They are commended in the post-match huddle by the coach, but Mario slips away to Thun and Leon feels hurt. He is further stung when they check into a training camp and Mario asks for a single room. Leon follows him to the lake and apologises for making a move and Mario reminds him that they will never make it as professional footballers if anyone knows they're gay. 

That night, however, Mario comes to Leon's room to make up and they spoon on the bed. Leon is invited to the chalet and Evelyn is impressed when he performs a rap at the dinner table. She urges Mario to contact Jenny because she failed to get her dream job and he promises her that he is keeping tabs on her. Back in their apartment, Mario and Leon discuss their past experiences and Mario is surprised that Leon dumped his boyfriend because he was too demonstrative in public, as Leon had kissed him while they were wandering around the shops in Thun. He is also taken aback that Leon has arranged dates through Grindr, as he is putting himself at risk of exposure. 

But, despite their efforts to be discreet in public, someone sticks a pornographic image on Mario's locker door and he is summoned to a meeting by the club sporting director (Beat Marti), who reveals that he has heard a rumour about their affair and is concerned how it will impact upon sponsors, fans and team morale. Mario denies everything and Maillard promises to support him. But Gehrling is furious with Mario for hiding the truth from him and reminds him that homosexuality is one of the game's biggest taboos. Leon's agent, Christian Zischler (Matthias Neukirch), is more confident that the situation can be managed, as Young Boys have invested too much in the pair to throw them to the wolves. Moreover, the board wants to avoid a scandal to avoid having to spout politically correct platitudes. 

The agents agree, however, that Leon and Mario should be seen out with girls and the need becomes more urgent after they detect hostility in the changing room and Lafranconi hisses a homophobic slur after Leon misses a penalty during a training game. Thus, Mario takes Jenny to a club function and Leon tries to make small talk to her friend, Miri (Annina Polivka). But, when Mario is introduced to the new first team coach (Tom Burri) and he makes a show of hugging and kissing her during the conversation, Jenny objects and walks out. However, when he comes clean, she hugs him and is genuinely pleased that he has found somebody. 

Their togetherness doesn't fool Lafranconi, however, who so riles Mario with a snide remark during their next game that he loses his head and is sent off for a reckless tackle. At full-time, Mario confronts Lafranconi who says that he will ease up on the lovers if they start giving him some more scoring chances, as squad assessment is imminent and he needs to improve his numbers. Leon wants to thump him, but Mario persuades him to stay calm and do nothing to make matters worse. 

An anonymous note to his parents rocks the boat, however, as Daniel is disgusted and doesn't take kindly to Mario suggesting that he treats Evelyn like a possession. But the season progresses and Maillard informs Mario that he will be drafted into the first team squad next season. Consequently, when Leon loses his temper at a dressing-room prank, Mario disowns him in order to safeguard his career and Leon storms out in anguished rage. He's suspended by the club and barely speaks to Mario when he comes to collect his things. 

Struggling to cope with his loss, Mario turns to Gehrling, who has received an offer from St Pauli in Hamburg. He asks Jenny if she will continue the charade to help Mario find his feet in a new town and promises to find her a better job than waitressing in a bar. She goes along with the deal and, while they lead separate lives, she turns up on match days to sit with the other WAGs. Daniel and Evelyn come to see Mario make his full debut and cheer when he lays on a goal. But, while Daniel tells his son how proud he is, Evelyn refuses to appear in a magazine shoot at the apartment, as she is uneasy about the fact that Mario and Jenny are living a lie. 

This reality also dawns on Jenny after an awkward dinner party and she tells Mario she has met someone else and wants to move out. He accepts her decision, but keeps popping sleeping pills and decides that he has to see Leon to clear his mind. Now training to be a sound engineer and playing park football, Leon has no regrets about Mario putting success before love, but he is in no mood to go back to skulking in the shadows. Mario is nettled when Leon's boyfriend wanders in and gives him a proprietorial kiss, but he recognises that he has moved on and leaves with a heavy heart. Indeed, he still seems to be in a daze when he scores in his next match and can barely register a smile.

Produced with the full co-operation of one of Switzerland's biggest clubs, this is a well-meaning insight into the mind of a young footballer. Having to balance their own ambitions with the good of the team, the members of the U21 squad have had a glimpse of the big-time and have sampled the rewards of turning pro. Thus, while Gisler and co-scenarists Thomas Hess and Frederic Moriette are right to condemn Lafranconi's bigotry, they wisely avoid demonising him, as he lacks the social and emotional intelligence to react otherwise to a dressing-room romance. They also knowingly question the board's morality by allowing them to blame their decision to keep the story under wraps on the fans and sponsors when they are far more concerned about public image and sell-on values. But Gisler struggles with the footballing action, which exposes Hubacher and Altaras's sporting shortcomings and undermines the authenticity of the plot as much as the pair's notable deficiency in sexual chemistry. 

The subplots involving Mario's father and longtime gal pal also feel forced, as Daniel tries to live vicariously through his son's achievements while ignoring his own failings as a husband and Jenny drifts like a paper cut-out in Mario's slipstream. Indeed, the sketchy secondary characterisation also impacts upon Gisler's analysis of machismo and team spirit, as he makes little effort to establish any bantering bonds between players who, presumably, would have come through the ranks together and, therefore, would know each other inside out. His pacing is also somewhat sluggish, while there's little to get excited about in either Sophie Maintigneux's photography or Kathrin Brunner's production design. Yet, this is a sincere attempt to goad football into confronting a problem it keeps hoping to ignore.

First brought to television as an anime series in 2014, Sui Ishida's acclaimed manga Tokyo Ghoul gets the live-action treatment in Kentaro Hagiwara's debut feature of the same name. Full of gore and knowing genre nods to keep the fanboy constituency happy, this Shochiku release is set in a present day in which ghouls pass unnoticed in the ordinary world. However, they tend to keep to their own kind, as whenever they feel the need to partake of human flesh, they develop tentacle-like organs known as `kagune' on their backs. In the original tele-show and its triptych of spin-offs, these transformations provided few challenges to the respective animation units. But Hagiwara is somewhat let down by the effects devised by Tomu Hyakutake and rendered in some decidedly dodgy computer-generated animation. 

Despite the best efforts of the Comission of Counter Ghoul, Tokyoites are still being stalked by ravenous creatures who somehow manage to blend in with the general population. Consequently, bookish student Ken Kaneki (Masataka Kubota) has no idea that the seemingly innocent Rize Kamishiro (Yu Aoi) is less interested in his mind than his flavour when she accepts his invitation for a date. He gets the picture, however, when she sinks her fangs into his shoulder during a romantic nocturnal walk through the park and she stabs her kagune through his abdomen to hold him still while she feeds. But, while he is spared being devoured when a falling girder crushes the red-eyed Rize, he is forced to endure a fate worse than death when he becomes a demi-ghoul after receiving some of Rize's organs during a life-saving operation. 

He gets an inkling of his predicament, however, when he goes for a celebration meal with best pal Hideyoshi Nagachika (Kai Ogasawara) and discovers that normal food tastes vile. As he tries to swallow the contents of his fridge while listening to a ghoul hunter on TV explaining the biology behind his loss of appetite, Ken imagines himself being attacked by Rize and, when he washes his face in the bathroom, he realises that one of his eyes has gone blood red. Staggering into the busy city, Ken smells flesh and promptly falls foul of Nishiki Nishio (Shunya Shiraishi), who accuses him of trespassing in his feeding ground. However, Ken is saved by Touka (Fumika Shimizu), a ghoul waitress who has long had her eyes on Ken and his friends. She despises Rize for stealing her prey and warns Ken to steer clear of Nishiki, who has little time for the Anteiku Code. 

Her boss, Yoshimura (Kunio Marai), is more sympathetic, however, and notes that Ken is finding it difficult to adapt to his new condition. He informs him that coffee can hold hunger pangs at bay, but cautions him that he will need to eat human flesh in order to survive. But Ken can't bring himself to consume the cold cut that Yoshimura provides for him and he vows to continue with his old life. Covering his red eye with a patch, he hooks up with Hide at school, only to find that he has become involved with Nishiki, who recognises Ken from the alleyway. He kills Hide by slamming him into a table. But, just as he is about to take a bite, Ken unleashes his trident kagune and defeats Nishiki in an epic battle. As he licks the blood off Hide's face, however, Ken catches sight of himself in the mirror and sees Rize smirking back at him. 

Ken is rescued from campus by Touka and Renji Yomo (Shuntaro Yanagi), who tidy up the room and take Hide to hospital before taking Ken back to the coffee shop. Yoshimura tells him that he is the only one who can dwell in both human and ghoul realms and offers him a job as a barista so he can learn to cope with his new reality. Here, he meets regular customer Ryoko Fueguchi (Shoko Aida) and her bashful daughter, Hinami (Hiyori Sakurada), who seeks solace in reading, as there are no other ghouls her age for her to befriend. He is also taken to meet Uta (Minosuke Bandô), who creates his ghoul mask, and accompanies Yomo on a body-collecting expedition to a well-known suicide spot.

Meanwhile, CCG agents Kotaro Amon (Nobuyuki Suzuki ) and Kureo Mado (Yo Oizumi) have become convinced that Ward 20 is the centre of Tokyo's ghoul community and are tracing dress fibres and a ring to find out more. Yoshimura realises that they are closing in on Ryoko and offers her sanctuary at the Anteiku until Yomo can find her new lodgings. Ken takes pity on Hinami when he accidentally blunders in on her eating and she feels ashamed of her nature. He also admires Touka, who bravely gobbles down a meal prepared for her by human friend, Yorkio Kosaka (Seika Foruhata), who doesn't suspect she is really a ghoul. So, Ken offers to help Hinami with her reading and to place some coffee beans on her father's grave. However, CCG rookie Ippei Kusaba (Tomoya Moeno) is snooping around the cemetery and reports back to base. Amon joins him at the graveside and digs up a box containing the mask worn by Ryoko's ghoul husband. 

Armed with a quinque (a weapon made from a severed kagune), Amon and Mado corner Ryoko and Hinami when they leave for their new home in Ward 24. Desperate to save her child, who has feasted without killing, Ryoko orders Hinami to run away and she is found Ken. As they hide behind a car, however, they witness Ryoko perish in the driving rain and Ken notes the pleasure that the white-haired Mado took in slaying her. Touka asks permission to exact revenge and attacks Amon and Kusaba after they leave a restaurant (where is seems as though Amon finds human food distasteful). She wears a rabbit mask to protect her identity and succeeds in offing Kusaba before Mado arrives with his quinque to drive her away before she can throttle Amon. He has to witness Kusaba's mother identifying his body and Ken is equally distraught when he learns that Touka has been badly injured. 

Seeking Yoshimura's permission, Ken takes a crash training course with the recovered Touka and a montage shows him gaining in strength and guile after some humiliating beatings. But we also see Mado planning to lure Hinami out of her safe house by using the scent of her mother's severed arm to bring her back to the spot beneath a railway bridge where she succumbed. He follows the child down to the river and warns Amon to keep an eye out for Touka and Ken, who have discovered that Hinami has slipped away. Touka takes on Mado, who is armed with a quinque made from Ryoko's kagune, while Ken overturns Amon's car and bites him in the neck during their tussle because he blames the CCG for demonising ghouls when they should be understood. 

Mado revels in inflicting pain on Touka and is about to finish her off when Hinami grows her kagune and severs his arm. Touka tells her that this is the man who murdered her parents, but she fights the urge to kill and cries when Touka curses Mado for thinking that ghouls have no right to prey on humans when they are their only source of nourishment. She kills him with a flick of her kagune. But Ken is reluctant to take his first life and spares Amon after they come crashing down from a balcony during their showdown. A single tear drops on the dove agent's eye and, when he looks up, he finds he is alone on the upturned body of his car. He finds Mado's body and later lays flowers at his grave (now also wearing an eye patch). But the film ends positively (in a bid to set up a sequel) by showing Hide coming round in hospital and Ken accepting his new family at the coffee shop, with Touka and Himami.

Plunging the audience into the scenario with a cursory explanation that provides little contextualising background, this is one of those films that will delight admirers of Ishida's bestseller and leave newcomers baffle. Novice screenwriter Ichiro Kusuno is too preoccupied with packing in the busy storyline to bother with niceties like character psychology or development arc. Thus, Masataka Kubota goes from quivering wreck to cackling monster without any insight into his shifting mindset other than a sentimental attachment to Hiyori Sakurada because she's also a lonely bookworm. We also get no indication of why the conscience-stricken Nobuyuki Suzuki appears less gung-ho than his boss or why the silver-tressed Yo Oizumi is such a brooding oddball, as he opens his precious attaché cases to unleash the quinques, whose amputated powers are never explained. 

For a first-timer, Kentaro Hagiwara directs the action sequences with plenty of panache, thanks to the contributions of cinematographer Satoru Karasawa, editors Yasuyuki Ozeki and Akira Takeda, and composer Don Davis. But he is less successful in reining in the scenery-gnawing tendencies of some of his players. Kubota is particularly hammy in his opening scenes, while Suzuki lurches between brooding intensity and sadistic ferocity. However, most post-screening discussion will centre on the shoddy CGI, the sudden disappearance of Yu Aoi after Kubota finds a home at the Anteiku, Fumika Shimizu's choice of a bunny mask, and why the citizens of Tokyo are not more terrified of the predators who regard them as items on a walking buffet.