LFF - The festival serves up a documentary double bill

'Based on a True Story' and 'Murderball' reviewed.

Nov  2 2005

The 1975 film 'Dog Day Afternoon' starred Al Pacino as John Wojtowicz, the man who tried to finance a sex change operation for his lover by robbing a New York branch of the Chase Manhattan Bank.

Dutch documentary maker Walter Stokman saw the film, became intrigued by the aftermath of the siege, and set about making 'Based on a True Story', a dramatic account of the events surrounding the Hollywood classic.

Tracking Wojtowicz down to the same Brooklyn neighbourhood he lived in thirty years ago, Stokman has great difficulty dealing with the man himself, and so relies on the testament of hostages, police, filmmakers and everyone else connected to the bungled bank job.

What emerges is a portrait of a strange, difficult and at times quite threatening individual; a control freak who found infamy thirty years ago and has been talking about it ever since.

It also proves that truth is indeed stranger than fiction, a statement that is backed up by the other doc of the day, 'Murderball'.

On the surface the film tells the tale of the rivalry between the American and Canadian quadriplegic rugby teams (an aggressive contact sport that was originally called 'murderball').

But at its heart, the documentary is a powerful, refreshingly unsentimental account of a remarkable group of individuals.

With characters like Mark Zupan (an aggressive, goateed monster on the court) and Joe Soares (who defected to the Canadian side when he was dropped by Team America) 'Murderball' is a hugely entertaining insight into the realities of being disabled.

It is also, without doubt, the best sports film of the year.

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