ReviewIf the direct object of a biographical film interferes with the making, you still hold your breath. It’s probably swearing in church for many Queen fans, but for example the Oscar-winning Bohemian Rhapsody (2018) was, however entertaining, partly thanks to the interference of the remaining band members a rather toothless (figuratively then) portrait of Freddie Mercury. The singer was anything but good in real life, in the film he is just not declared a saint.
I Am Zlatan is not a masterpiece either, but despite the interference of Zlatan Ibrahimović himself, we see an honest film that does not dribble around the frayed edges of the renowned football player. In the opening scene, he incurs the anger of Ajax coach Ronald Koeman during a training session on the field of the current Johan Cruijff Arena (nice supporting role by Gijs Naber). As a 19-year-old newcomer, Zlatan found it difficult to find his way at the club and he showed that. While his teammates have been in line with the trainer for a while, the talent from Sweden walks around comfortably bored. Sent away, he crawls into his Diemens terraced house behind the television for a Playstation game. His departure to Juventus for 16 million euros still seems far away.
The Swedish-Dutch co-production I Am Zlatan As a ‘biopic’, the form is not free of clichés (it does mean a lot and covers his childhood, puberty and period with Ajax), but in terms of content it is not the classic ‘road to the top’ film. Ibrahimović never becomes an angel, he is (and remains) the capricious, somewhat arrogant and sometimes aggressive fighter boss as we know him. Thanks to this film, he becomes more than a professional smartass. It comes from somewhere.
The most fascinating passages take place before he breaks through as a young talent at the Swedish football club Malmö FF, the son of a boozing Bosnian father and an unstable Croatian mother. It is a poor environment in which he develops into anything but a team player and also constantly feels the urge to stand up for himself. The chronically angry Zlatan argues with everyone and everything, yet no one can defeat him. Only on the football field does the ‘difficult kid’ (played naturally by the unknown Dominic Andersson Bajraktati) still get the benefit of the doubt.
Enigma
That he is also stubborn as a high school student is apparent from scenes in which he secretly steals his trainer’s bicycle or wins a running competition by traveling a few bus stops unseen. Indeed, it all comes from somewhere. Yet Ibrahimović is not alone in being a victim. It’s just his character.
Once at Ajax (the famous goal against NAC from 2004 in which he zigzagged past his opponents, is not skipped) I Am Zlatan his strength. As if the makers didn’t know how to keep its history interesting. It never becomes uplifting and you often wonder if it doesn’t work better as a documentary (and it exists with Becoming Zlatan from 2015 already), but when the credits roll we have started to understand the enigma Ibrahimović a little better.
Directed by: Jens Sjogren. Starring: Granit Rushiti, Dominic Andersson Bajraktati and Gijs Naber
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