Hurt that Mario so easily continues to publicly deny his homosexuality and their relationship, Leon quits the team and moves back to Germany. Heartbroken, Mario puts all of his energy into training, eventually receiving contract offers from both his hometown club and a club in Hamburg. By Boyd van Hoeij. A young Swiss soccer player has been training very hard but his hopes of professional advancement are complicated by the fact that he falls in love with a fellow player in the — excuse the pun — straightforward drama Mario. Indeed, there is nothing objectionable about this feature, which is so well acted it managed to take home statues in the best actor and best supporting actress categories at the most recent Swiss Film Awards.
Mario and Leon's sexuality gets out and has to be denied. The club, supposedly, is behind them, their fellow players make homophobic jibes, if it becomes public their careers would be over etc. It's an issue largely ignored in the cinema so it's good to see it being dealt with now. Starring: Max Hubacher, Aaron Altaras, Jessy Moravec, Jürg Plüss. Director: Marcel Gisler. Country: Switzerland.
Mario’s heartbreaking confession to Leon that he is “not brave enough,” which seals their tragic separation. The final sequence: Mario alone on the pitch, victorious but hollow, as the camera lingers on his lost, confused expression. Mario is devastating because it feels painfully real. Mario Lüthi Max Hubacher is a fifth-tier league Association Football player who hopes to make it into a 1st League group next year. During training, another player joins the team: Leon Saldo Aaron Alteras , from Hanover. The two play well together and are moved into a shared flat, where they discover their attraction to each other and begin a relationship.
As their relationship intensifies, the pair become inseparable, yet Mario is desperate to hide their love from his teammates. As rumours of their relationship begin to circulate, the boys are. The German immediately stands out among his Swiss home-grown peers. Speaking over Skype, actor Max Hubacher, a Bern native, tells me that he drew on his own experiences as a youth while researching the role of Mario. You spend over half your life with these guys.
Mario is a Swiss romantic sports drama film directed by Marcel Gisler. [1][2] The story revolves around two sportsmen who meet while playing football against other teams in a shared location and quickly develop feelings for one another. A Swiss drama set within the world of professional soccer, Mario explores the forbidden romance between two young strikers on the same team and their attempts to keep their relationship a secret from everyone around them. The kind of driven young guy who wakes up early to run extra laps and perform extra drills on his own, Mario hopes that this will be the year he secures a contract from the senior Young Boys squad. However, instead of battling each other, the two discover a remarkable chemistry on and off the pitch.
Discover Mario (), a Swiss LGBTQ+ sports drama that bravely tackles forbidden love, fear of coming out, and the harsh realities of professional football. A poignant story of love and self-acceptance. .
Others may disagree, but I thought the ending was realistic and very well handled given the context of the story. Similarities with the very excellent Free Fall. As a gay football fan, also enjoyed the setting and onfield action. However, totally baffled how Mario attracted an '18' rating. Bollocks to that. In my Top 5 all-time gay films. .
A forbidden story of romance between two football players, Mario shines a light on the pressures put upon footballers, managers and associates alike to keep quiet about players who identify as gay. .