When life hands you a lemon, you can wince -- or make lemonade.
If the story of Vikash Dhorasoo could be summed up in a sound byte, it would be this: He made lemonade.
It is an unusual story, his: the soccer player of Indian origin was a regular starter on the French squad that played the qualifying rounds ahead of the 2006 World Cup. But once the French team reached Germany, he stayed on the bench except for brief appearances against Switzerland and South Korea in first round games -- a suddenly unwanted appendage, largely because he plays in the same position as the inspirational Zinedine Zidane.
He spent his time in hotel rooms; he refrained from answering the telephone; he talked to himself constantly and whenever he caught himself at it, talked to himself some more this time to reassure himself that he wasn't going nuts.
And now he has crystallized the experience of being an unnoticed spare wheel into Substitute, a feature documentary that is being hailed as one of the more unusual films ever made about soccer.
The power of the documentary stems from the fact that Dhorasoo recorded thoughts and feelings as they happened, rather than try and craft a narrative after the fact. Thus, the documentary is startling for its realness, its versimiltude.
When he, early on, talks of the fact that play or no, he is as much a part of the team as anyone else, and then as weeks go by, he says "I'm getting fed up here in Germany. I wonder what I came here for, except for a film, because my World Cup went wrong. Three days ago against Spain, I felt like crying. I'm not a supporter, I'm not a spectator, I'm a football player - and I'm not playing football," you experience all of the frustration, the rage, the heartbreak of a skilled professional denied the greatest showcase of them all.
That heartbreak is crystallized when he talks of coach Raymond Domenech. "For two years, he trained me to climb a mountain. And the day I could climb it, he took the neighbour's son. This is a betrayal," says the player, on film.
Substitute was screened last week at the IDFA Documentary Festival in Amsterdam; its genesis, reports The Independent, was when the player received a Super-8 camera from singer, writer and film-maker Fred Poulet.
Dhorasoo travelled with the team; Poulet followed, armed with his own camera. The two met often, in secret, so Dhorasoo could pass along whatever he had shot. The two had initially met after the player read an article by Poulet, and contacted him; the two went on to become good friends.
Without ever getting verbose, the film creates heart-stopping moments to underline its core theme - as in the sequence when Dhorasoo runs on as substitute for Zidane in a friendly match against Mexico and the crowd boos at seeing their favorite replaced.
While his movie, which will be released in the UK next year while Euro 2008 is on, makes waves, life as a soccer player has gotten worse. The Independent reports that earlier this autumn, his contract with the Italian team Livorno was terminated, and he is now, at 34 years of age, looking for a new club.
"Failing that," he says, tongue very much in cheek, "I might make more films."
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