At Brussels' Heysel Stadium in May 1985, thirty-year-old Marie, daughter and press attaché of the city's mayor, attends the European Cup Final between Juventus and Liverpool with her parents. Also present is Italian-born journalist Luca Rossi, covering the match for Italian television alongside family visiting from Italy. Before kick-off, rioting hooligans cause a wall to collapse, killing 39 people and plunging the stadium into chaos. As the increasingly drunk and ineffective mayor fails to handle the unfolding crisis, Marie, fluent in multiple languages, is forced to step up, negotiating between police, football officials and politicians over the impossible question of whether to cancel the match, risking further riots, or let it proceed. Blending fictionalised drama with real archive footage, the film reconstructs the institutional failures behind one of football's darkest nights.
Review:
A technically astute, tensely observed reconstruction of a real tragedy, its skilful interweaving of archive footage with dramatised scenes never tipping into exploitation, even where its screenplay occasionally feels laboured.
