Ivan's Game (2019)

IVAN'S GAME is a biographical documentary which covers the life story of one of the greatest Croatian soccer players of all time: Ivan Gudelj. The film follows Ivan's meteoric rise and the tragic end of his career at the height of his fame, and how he managed to overcome a grave illness (hepatitis B) and other hardships that came his way, to finally become a model today for young athletes and everyone else thanks to his discipline and persistence. The film poses the following questions to its viewers: how can you continue your life when the whole world collapses around you like a house of cards? How do you flip the score in a game that's already lost? Is there life after soccer? IVAN'S GAME, besides main protagonist Ivan Gudelj, features many internationally famous soccer players from the countries of ex-Yugoslavia in last 40 years. This line-up includes Zvonimir Boban, until recently the vice-president of FIFA (former player for Milan), Dejan Savicevic, the president of the Montenegrin Football Federation (former player for Milan), Predrag Mijatovic (former player for Real Madrid), Blaz Sliskovic (former player for Marseilles), Ivica Surjak (former player for Paris Saint-Germain), Ivan Buljan (former player for Hamburg and NY Cosmos), Zlatko Vujovic (former player for Bordeaux and Paris Saint-Germain), Marko Mlinaric (former player for Auxerre and Cannes), Zoran Vulic (former player for Nantes and Nice), Vladimir Pizon Petrovic (former player for Arsenal, Brest, Nancy), coaches Sergije Kresic (Hajduk, Real Betis), Miroslav Blazevic (bronze medal with Croatia at World Cup in France in 1998), and current Croatian national team players (silver medalists from the World Cup in Russia in 2018), trained by Ivan Gudelj as juniors: Dominik Livakovic, Andrej Kramaric, Milan Badelj, and others.