Stillwater City, which was released in Cannes this year, is a very rich film. The plot is roughly adapted from the famous "Angel Killer" case. The American blue-collar players played show the cultural exchanges and conflicts of a multi-society, and football plays a very important role in it.
Due to the language barrier, it is very difficult for an American oil worker to come to Marseille, France, a foreign country to seek justice for his daughter. The city of Marseille also has its own particularity. It is the city with the largest number of African immigrants in France. This setting provides a stage for the clash of cultures that unfolds in the film.
The first thing Matt Damon faced in Marseille was not a conflict of cultures, but a conflict of values. As a member of the French Cochi, the heroine is naturally a typical left-wing character. In the process of helping Matt Damon to find clues, because a shop owner thinks that Arabs should be sent to prison and loses control, thinking that he is racist. Resolutely refused to continue with him. This is an unreasonable thing in Matt Damon's view. From the perspective of an ordinary American worker, it is no big deal. On the contrary, he will think that the heroine is the strange party. In fact, he does think so. Fortunately, Matt Damon vaguely fooled him when the hostess asked him if he would vote for Trump, otherwise the two would have broken up early.
After the conflict of values, the conflict of culture ensues. The mixed-race little girl born by the heroine and her ex-husband represents the identity consensus of the locals in Marseille, and she wants a Marseille team jersey. Matt Damon sneered at this at first, thinking that "football is a girl's sport for crying and chirping" and that a man should play football. There is no need to elaborate on the different cultural orientations of "soccer" and "football". Anyway, the little girl immediately expressed her dissatisfaction to Matt Damon, and listed Payet, Tovan, Hiroki Sakai and other stars who were active in Marseille at that time. to show her love for the Marseille team.
As mentioned at the beginning, Marseille is an unusually diverse city, where different ethnic groups coexist. So what is the lubricant to maintain communication between different ethnic groups? The director gave a fairly clear "hint": football.
With the deepening of the plot, Matt Damon gradually adapted to the Maasai way of life. Out of his fatherly love for the little girl, Damon bought two tickets to the Velodrome Stadium. Since then, a considerable part of the film has been aimed at the frenetic atmosphere inside the Marseille home. It was useless, but based on some footage, I deduced some background details of the game.
The first shot was to Payet, the 34-year-old legendary captain of Marseille. The little girl in the movie makes no secret of her love for Payet. In fact, Payet is indeed the hero of the city of Marseille and is loved by many people. (Of course, West Ham and Portugal fans certainly don't like him)
The most obvious feature of this game is the jersey. Throughout the Ligue 1, it must be Saint-Etienne who wears a green jersey. In the game, Marseille No. 9 Benedetto received a pass from his teammate and scored. Benedetto played for Marseille from 2019 to 2021, so this game can be determined to be the fourth round of the 2019-2020 season. Marseille home 1: 0 win against Saint-Etienne. (However, the retrial of the "Angel Killer Case" actually happened in 2011)
Eh, that's a bit off topic, but it's quite puzzling for the director to use such a long length to shoot a game. Does capturing that Akim need such a game to pave the way? I don't think it's actually necessary. The director was more about expressing football as a cultural force that unites people's hearts. The Algerian flag waving in the sky before the game flashed by, and people of different skin colors and races hugged and sang and danced. At this point they abandoned their old identities and shared a common identity: Marseille fans. This may be what this game wants to express and the new content.
PS: In addition to the content of cultural communication in "Still Water City", other parts are also worth watching carefully, especially the director's subtle satire on American hegemony. The evidence that Damon found by bypassing the legal violence actually confirmed that his daughter was indeed the murderer behind the scenes. At the end of the film, the US government boldly announced to the world that they had successfully brought back Damon's daughter... However, all these are shown in the 140-minute movie. There is still some procrastination, and the insufficiently compact plot may be the biggest flaw of the movie.
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