Synopsys
Taking place between the streets, football pitches and bureaucratic grey areas of Suriname, Laws of the Game is a film about fairness, and the difficulty of following the rules when the complexities of life make compromise seem so much easier. Zeola is a female referee officiating in the Suriname men’s league. The sport is her world, and she dreams of officiating at the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup. When an official within the Surinamese Football Association betrays Zeola for his own benefit, she must fight to retain her FIFA license. Normally a person of firm ethics, she makes one small slip that threatens to destroy her whole career unless she returns to what she knows best: the laws of the game. The way it is supposed to be played.
Laws of the game is set in Suriname, in 2016, as the country is going through an economic meltdown. The Surinamese Depression is at it’s worst, ith serious effects for lower income households. Electricity rates increased 400%, the currency devaluated without income being adjusted to inflation, and the chance to wrest from this crisis is unthinkable at this stage. On top of that, the most contagious form of Suriname’s famous ‘crabs-in-a-barrel’ mentality-a reaction to success where on crab tries to make it out of the barrel while the other pulls him down to achieve the same purpose-makes it impossible for hard working, driven individuals like Zeola to reach the top. The controversial example that some leaders in government set fort he public is adopted in all kinds of organization structures. Even within the world of sports.
LAWS OF THE GAME is a London Film School graduation project of Aegina Brahim, through which she will receive an MA in Film Directing upon succesfully completing, distributing, and exhibiting the film in one of the International Film Festivals, such as Berlin Film Festival, or Venice.
AEGINA BRAHIM, DIRECTOR
Aegina Brahim is a Dutch filmmaker of Surinamese origin within 7 years of hands-on producing & directing experience within film and TV entertainment projects in the UK, Europe, USA and North Africa. She;s the only filmmaker of Surinamese origin and the 8th filmmaker from the Netherlands to get her MA title from LFS in Film Directing. She directed her first feature “Brothers in the Sand” (2016) which is now to screen at international film festivals. Aegina became managing partner at Cape Films June 2016 and is now producing a TV animation series “Glim & Badunski” created bij Plano Z. Aegina was also Assistant Producer at the American Music Awards in 2010.
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT
This story is close heart as well as my experience. I grew up in Suriname and had the Surinamese flaf risen behind me as I received gol, silver and bronze medals at international swimming competitions. It was almost 15 years ago, but I stil hear the cheers and smell the fresh chlorine in morning water. I still feel the burn in my legs and the rush of finishing first. But my moments of glory didn’t come without struggles and intense frustrations. Sport in Suriname can be unfair at times and I’ve often asked myself why that is. Is it from this ‘crabs-in-the-barrel’ mentality? IS it because some people within respective organizations have their own ‘hidden’ agenda? Or is it because there seems tob e no support in moments of weakness? Suriname has it’s own rules, it’s own laws, when it comes to matters of success, and Zeola experiences the complexity of it every day, even worse than I have in the past. Laws of the Game is a social realist drama that shows viewers the rules on the pitch as well as the rules of Surinamese society through the point of view of Zeola. I’d like the audience to feel the joys and frustrations as she feels it by showing them her journey and translating the way Zeola thinks (or what she pays attention to) into filmic elements such as camera movement, sound design, music, and editing. In the end, I’d like to leave viewers discussing over the same questions I’ve had: to what extend success is in your own hands and how far you should go, or how much you should sacrifice, to achieve your goal.
