THE MATCH 

“The match has only just begun!” is a short documentary film about Riswan, a 29-year-old immigrant from Pakistan who has been living in Greece for the past 10 years. After a difficult journey, he has arrived in a strange land where people were speaking an incomprehensible language, the daily struggle for survival was demanding, and as if that weren't enough, women were wearing jeans and mini. Overcoming the difficulties, today Riswan has a good job as a cook and has managed to set up his own cricket team which he - not by chance - called "Friends". With them he shares the most funny part of his life, the cricket, but as the match of life never ends, Riswan in a few days is leaving for Pakistan to get into new adventures, those of marriage.

 

Creative Team: Xenophon Angelopoulos, Marina Tomara

Directed by: Marina Tomara

Editing: Dimitris Tzetzas

Directing/Script consultant: Angelos Kovotsos

 

Director's interview

I have chosen Riswan to be my protagonist because he is a character with interesting traits, adventurous, persistent, with funny aspects. The cricket match worked as a parallelism to the struggle that Riswan has given over the last 10 years in Greece to adapt, survive and create an identity in a foreign country with a different culture. In addition, through the story of Riswan we are given the opportunity to focus on a group of migrants, the Pakistani, who despite their large numbers, are not entitled to asylum in Europe.  Meeting Riswan introduced me to his own culture and his view of life and this was very constructive for me. I have better understood the reasons why a young man from Pakistan seeks to find a better life in Europe, but also the way in which these people perceive concepts like home, family, relationships. That's what I think was most important, that I came in contact with another way of life and perception.

Marina Tomara