Taika Waititi returned to TIFF tonight with his underdog soccer story about the American Samoa team, Next Goal Wins, which received great cheers and a heartfelt response.
Waititi took the stage with the pic’s real-life characters, Thomas Rogen, the Dutch coach played by Michael Fassbender in the film, and Jaiyah Saelua, the first openly non-binary and trans-woman to compete in a FIFA World Cup qualifier.
The pic, directed and co-written by the Oscar winner, is inspired by the true story of the American Samoa soccer team, infamous for its brutal 31-0 loss to Australia in a 2001 World Cup qualifying match.
The team’s story came to Waititi after seeing the 2014 documentary on which it’s based, the filmmaker a self-confessed non-soccer fan.
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