One of the buzz titles here at POFF, the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, is a football (European style) documentary with the enticing title of KILL THE REFEREE (Les Arbitres). The Belgian production focuses not only the overpaid players or their obsessive, sometimes violent fans, but on the referees who have the unenviable job of calling plays and declaring fouls. 

KILL THE REFEREE unveils the lives of several professional football referees at the Euro 2008 championship; amongst them, the English referee Howard Webb, who provoked incredible controversy when he gave a penalty to Austria just before the end of the match with Poland, and the Italian Roberto Rosetti, who refereed the final.

Filmed right at the heart of the action, we hear their comments during the matches thanks to lapel-mikes. Belgian producer Jean Libon, who initiated the project, obtained permission and access to what was going on behind the scenes thanks to support from UEFA president Michel Platini.

While of obvious interest to sports nuts, the film is also a telling examination of human behavior under stressful conditions and the private worlds of men who must keep their composure and their judgment in the midst of raging egos and intimidating physiques.

The director Yves Hinant is a graduate in journalism from the University of Brussels and has worked as a sports journalist. His credits include the famous TV documentary programme "Strip-Tease" which he did together with Eric Cardot. His "Le flic, la juge et l'assassin" (2007), a three-part documentary, won several prizes. On KILL THE REFEREE he cooperated with Eric Cardot again.

For information on the film, contact the world sales agent: Thibaut Potdevin
tpotdevin@gmail.com

Sandy Mandelberger, POFF Dailies Editor