Shooting for Socrates, the film about the Northern Ireland team in the 1986 World Cup, opens in cinemas nationwide today (June 5).
Odrán de Bhaldraithe spoke with director/writer James Erskine about making a film about a team playing against a war-torn backdrop and the mystique of the title figure, Brazilian footballer Sócrates.
You’re clearly a football man, having made the World Cup documentary One Night in Turin; what is it about this story that made you think it was your next film?
"Making a film about England, it’s all about expecting victory, but what I liked about this story is that it’s actually more about the passion of the game. You know, we play a game because we love it and it’s not about winning. Of course, our motivation is to win, but everybody loses. I just felt this was a great way of exploring what football could bring to people and I love the Sócrates quote: “Beauty comes first, victory is secondary. What matters is joy.” I wanted to do that and take that from a place where there was a lot of violence, obviously in Belfast in the ‘80s, and show that football was a way of opening up people’s imagination and inspiring them to learn about the positives of battle and that things didn’t need to be kept in animosity."
Having picked the team to follow, one of the most important things was to show the massive disconnect that was there at the time; the Anglo-Irish Agreement had just come in, there was rioting in the streets of Belfast pretty much all the time. Did the idea that sport could distract from real life add to the romance?
"Yeah, absolutely, and that you could come from somewhere that looks like it’s a terrible place to be, that’s just about survival, and suddenly be seen on the world stage; to show that you’re not just a horrible rock that’s rainy and wet where people kill each other, you’re actually a real people with a real identity. I was very interested in the contrast between Brazil and Northern Ireland as well. On the sporting pitch, of course, Brazil are the gods of football and the idea of what football can be in terms of beauty, but also politically. I had spent a lot of time in Brazil and they had had a lot of trouble until 1984 with an oppressive military regime and I just liked this idea that Sócrates, the footballer, had been one of the key figures in the democracy movement and that there was a possibility for sport to kind of open up people’s hearts and minds."
You talk about being in Brazil, was there a great mystique surrounding Sócrates there? He appears fleetingly in the film in the tunnel before the game, smoking and he presents a mystique of the incredibly cool player. Was there this reputation there? Obviously he’s revered worldwide, but in Brazil especially, is he held up as this incredibly cool, incredibly brilliant person and player?
"Yeah, I mean he was a columnist in newspapers, he was a philosopher, he was a doctor and he spoke to rallies of one and a half million people. I think he embodied a sense of power in one’s self. I definitely think that’s true in Brazil and he was a captain off the field as much as he was a captain on the field. He himself says somewhere in the film: “Football isn’t the goal of life, the goal of life, for me, is revolution”. You know, football is a way of getting a big audience to recognise you and understand you and put across your ideas. So yeah, Sócrates is a huge figure and I think he’s got great mystique. I know that there’s been a number of people trying to make films about him because a footballer that’s also an intellectual is seen as being quite a rare thing, but actually lots of intellectuals play football, so . . . hahahaha."
Going back to the Northern Ireland team, did you contact any of the them before making the film for stories, or did you rely on second hand sources?
"We spoke to a lot of the team, actually. The idea for the film initially came about when I actually met (former NI midfielder) David Campbell, who’s played by Nico Mirallegro in the film, at a party and was just chatting to him and I asked what he did and he said he used to be a footballer. I asked him about the biggest game he’d ever played in and he said he’d played for Northern Ireland when they’d played Brazil in the World Cup and I said “I don’t believe that ever happened”, and he told me to look it up. That was the start of it and Dave was very helpful in introducing me to his teammates. Sammy McIlroy was particularly helpful, obviously Pat Jennings, the late Alan MacDonald, (manager) Billy Bingham, who I saw at a screening in Liverpool. Lots of the players helped, Jackie Fullerton, who’s featured in the film, was very kind in giving his time to tell his story. So yeah, we did lots and lots and lots of research."
What has the reception been like from the players, Jackie Fullerton and Billy Bingham since they’ve seen the finished product?
"They love it, they’ve all loved it. We did a screening at the Belfast Film Festival and a lot of the players came. Pat was there and Sammy, Jackie was there and I think it went down great. I think they found it moving, I think they found it remarkable that somebody was telling their story. Billy saw it last night and he was very impressed too. We’ve had a great reception."
People on either side of a divide can generally be wary of outsiders trying to tell their story. Was their hesitance on your part, or did you meet any resistance, in doing this? It’s not the most controversial of stories, but were there any problems from that side of things?
"That wasn’t so much a problem for me, because I was working with Marie Jones, the writer, who is Belfast-born and bred. We wrote the script together so were able to work together and do the researcher. Had I wandered in from the outside, maybe it would have been different, but I was there with an insider who understood it and knew the story really well."
Beforehand, had you been aware of what it was like fir the team in the ‘80s? Had you assumed that it was a strictly Protestant thing, with Catholics either playing begrudgingly or not playing at all?
"I didn’t so much about that, I don’t know if all Catholics were begrudging, I mean Martin O’Neill was captain and Pat obviously played. I think it was difficult if you were a Catholic player because of the connection of the Northern Irish team with Protestants and Windsor Park being in a loyalist area, but I don’t think it’s fair to say that they were reluctant. I think they were reluctant to be seen as supporters of singing the national anthem, but I’m not sure that they didn’t want to play for the country. That changed a bit in the ‘90s when the Republic surged and there was more of an outlet for those players to play for the Republic, but Northern Ireland in ’82 and ’86 were a much more successful team than the Republic. I had the impression that it might be difficult. I’ve got a lot of friends from Belfast, who grew up in the Troubles, so I was conscious of the divide."
Was it part of the appeal that football, as much as it has been used to unite in the north, has also been used a lot to divide; outside of Glasgow, it’s the biggest place for the Celtic-Rangers rivalry. You’ve got Cliftonville who pretty much represent the entire Republican population of Belfast, while the other clubs would be mainly loyalist. So was it the idea of showing a Belfast that was, at least for one summer, united under one team?
"I think that’s an important thing, if you’re looking at football on an international level with a degree of success, people don’t need to be stuck in their local clubs. Of course, some are loyalists and some are Catholic, but in any country - I’m a Manchester City fan, the hatred between Manchester City and Manchester United is pretty deep - but when they’re playing together in the national team, you can have a different perception. I think Billy was really good at managing it. I talked to Billy, a bit, about the political pressures on him managing the team. Of course he would say that he always ran out the best players, but it was fortunate that the best players were from both sides of the divide. If you look at how he managed the captaincy, after Martin O’Neill, who was a Catholic, retired, he made Sammy McIlroy, who was a Protestant, captain. If you look at it, he actually rotated those captaincies. He was canny, Billy. He was canny enough to know that he wanted to make a team that wasn’t stuck entirely on one side."
Jackie Fullerton is probably the most magnetic character in it. He’s played by Conleth Hill, who’s known as Lord Varys from Game of Thrones. There’s a kind of sense in his portrayal of Fullerton that’s not unlike his portrayal of Varys. You’re watching him and you’re not really sure about this man, but it’s this brilliant thing that Conleth Hill brings to it and that makes it all the more enjoyable.
"Yeah, I mean the idea is that that role in the film, and the reason why it’s so important, is, as in traditional theatre as the Greek chorus, he’s narrating the story. If you look at that in theatre, then it turns out to be someone who you’re never quite sure if they’re a faithful narrator or not. I think that was definitely something that Conleth put in there. You can never quite know what his own views were, or if he would change his views according to the weather. I think he was adding that as a classical element, but yeah I agree, I think he’s an amazing actor. He really managed to put that great pay off into that character, as he does in Game of Thrones."
What was it like to choreograph the action sequences, the actual footballing parts?
"To choreograph the football was very tricky. The archive material couldn’t really be used; obviously we were using actors to play the players so that wouldn’t have cut and the quality of footage from the ‘80s is not good enough to put in a movie. We spent a lot of time choreographing it, but actually trying to match shots to how it was shot at the time. So yeah, we spent a lot of time in Windsor Park and the Hércules de Alicante stadium with different players, working out different stadiums."
What would you say is the most important thing to take away from the film?
"I’d say the most important thing to take away from the film is that it’s a film about surviving and forging your own identity and being proud of yourself. That’s what I hope comes across, that it’s not about winning, it’s about being there. It’s about being on life’s great stage and hopefully that’s shown in a moving way."
Shooting for Socrates is in cinemas now
