Award-winning doc to be shown on free-to-air strand, Rakuten Stories.
Rakuten TV is to air an extended version of Eighteam, a documentary telling the story of the Zambian National Football Team’s 18-year road to recovery, following the death of 18 members of the team in a plane crash in 1993, to winning the Africa Cup of Nations in 2012.
Eighteam will be available on Rakuten TV’s free ‘Rakuten Stories’ channel on 29 October 2020 across 42 countries.
The team was flying to the FIFA World Cup qualifier against Senegal when the plane it was travelling on crashed and killed many of the players. The surviving captain Kalush Bwalya then began rebuilding the team, culminating in its success at the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations.
The 70-minute film Eighteam, which has been directed by Juan Rodr guez-Briso, has been co-produced by Atlantia Media.
It features testimonials from the players, iconic footballers and people that knew the team, including the former captain of the Zambian national team Chris Katongo; former national coach of Zambia Herve Renard; former president of the Football Association of Zambia Kalusha Bwalya; and players Ciro Ferrara, Mauro Tassotti, Sandro Mazzola.
The original soundtrack was composed by Michael Nyman.
Eighteam has won numerous festival awards including Best Documentary Award African Film Festival (Nigeria); Best Documentary Award Silicon Valley Film Festival (United States); Best Documentary Award International Movie Awards (Indonesia); Best Documentary Award Minuto 90 Film Festival (Peru); and it was also selected for Cannes Cinephile section.