german version

Schwarze Perlen _____
A FILM BY BENEDIKT RUBEY AND WOLFGANG MURNBERGER - Austria 2008, 11 min

Innumerable sub-Saharan Africans spend years of uncertainty in refugee camps such as the Traiskirchen centre. They wait for a visa, though most of them lack the necessary documents, or the more realistic outcome, deportation. Black Pearls is the name chosen for a football team formed four years ago by African asylum-seekers. Football, as a common language and source of hope, provides an opportunity for them to transform their reality, or just forget it for a while. The film mainly accompanies Larry McDon, the team's cofounder and top scorer. Glimpses of the team practicing show the players struggling against aimlessness, and it also gives them support and positive energy.