"Gegengerade" is a German movie from 5 years ago written and directed by Tarek Ehlail and I am actually surprised that the cast here includes quite a handful pretty famous names, at least for German standards, especially Mario Adorf of course. The center of the film is the football/soccer club St. Pauli from Hamburg, a team that is known for having the most passionate fans in the positive sense as well as negative too. Unfortunately, this is not a great tribute at all I have to say. the characters in these under 90 minutes are simply not interesting enough and when they have moments where I actually cared about them, then they quickly went over the top with the characterizations. And the ending is pretty bad too. It basically depicts the situation in a way that tells audiences that police are violent and only have the intention to beat up as many innocent football fans as possible, which has obviously nothing to do with reality and almost got me giving this film an even lower rating. The outcome here is very much disappointing and is not even close to doing justice to the long and trouble-some history of this legendary German football team. i do not recommend watching it, especially not to St. Pauli fans. Actually, I genuinely wonder if Ehlail is a HSV fan after watching this one. Or if he is really that unskilled.
2 Reviews
Just confirms what every German already knows
dynamobayern7 September 2021
I watched this movie because I am a big fan of German football culture and also because my opinion on St. Pauli was the worst possible. Still I had to acknowledge the fanatism and loudness with which Pauli fans support their team, so I thought that this movie maybe would change my view on their fan scene.
But the absolute opposite happened. Turns out that it was naive to think that Pauli fans care about fan and ultra culture, about their team, about the success of a club. The only thing that brings these people together is politics! Not their club, not a sympathetic coach, not a top scorer, not a promotion. They want to celebrate being violent left wing extremists and fight on the streets for - yeah, whatever it is, it is not St. Pauli. This club and it's fans are a shame for football fan scenes and people who really care about the sport and its spirit. It is sad that those guys are getting the opportunity to transport their hate all over the country in the top divisions. Society should not look away, especially when there is film material like this, even though those scenes are staged - stuff like that happens in reality regularly when Pauli people are around.
2/10 stars because the movie shows the reality, even though it is a poor reality.
But the absolute opposite happened. Turns out that it was naive to think that Pauli fans care about fan and ultra culture, about their team, about the success of a club. The only thing that brings these people together is politics! Not their club, not a sympathetic coach, not a top scorer, not a promotion. They want to celebrate being violent left wing extremists and fight on the streets for - yeah, whatever it is, it is not St. Pauli. This club and it's fans are a shame for football fan scenes and people who really care about the sport and its spirit. It is sad that those guys are getting the opportunity to transport their hate all over the country in the top divisions. Society should not look away, especially when there is film material like this, even though those scenes are staged - stuff like that happens in reality regularly when Pauli people are around.
2/10 stars because the movie shows the reality, even though it is a poor reality.
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