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Dear Ben This is an interesting project. John Donne said, 'No man is an island', but the makers of 'Zidane: a 21st century portrait' seem to have had the explicit intent of contradicting this by 'isolating' Zidane on camera, ie making him into an island. This seems to be an especially odd view to take of a footballer who has to play with 10 other players in a team, and doubly odd because Zidane's genius as a footballer, apart from his technical skill, has been to be so tactically aware of how he might link up with other players, an awareness that puts him ahead of the 21 other players on the pitch. Unless there is an interview with Zidane in which he explicitly endorses the film as a true picture of him as a person and footballer - in which case I am completely nonplussed! - I think it utterly failed to do justice both to him as a footballer and someone with an interesting life, full of difficulties surmounted. I don't think he's a hero, but he is a multi-facetted human being. Despite having 17 (I think) cameras filming the football match, the film-makers either did not capture the incident leading to his red card with a nearby camera , or deliberately chose to obscure what happens by only showing it in a very long distance shot so that it was virtually uninterpretable. One might call it his Meursault moment, but I suspect it was much more complex. Also, Meursault is a character in fiction so the author can invent motive or lack of motive, but Zidane is real flesh and blood and entitled to be treated with respect. Me, I'm with John Donne. Tim Cawkwell Norwich, UK * * Film-Philosophy Email Discussion Salon. After hitting 'reply' please always delete the text of the message you are replying to. To leave, send the message: leave film-philosophy to: [log in to unmask] For help email: [log in to unmask], not the salon. **