Ashish has spent his whole life within the four walls of his family home on a remote island in Kerala, under the eye of an overprotective father. His only friend is a man he has never met: Lionel Messi. When the World Cup comes to Qatar, he tells his family a lie, slips away and sets out to find his idol, landing a backstage job where, for the first time, he must face the world and himself.
On a remote island in Kerala, Ashish has grown up in near-total isolation, sheltered by a controlling father and sustained by a quietly supportive mother and the memory of his late brother. His one true friend is someone he has never met: Lionel Messi. When the 2022 FIFA World Cup arrives in Qatar, Ashish seizes his chance. Telling his family he has been chosen to represent India, he leaves home for the first time and crosses the sea to Doha, where a backstage job at the stadiums puts him within touching distance of his hero, and face to face with a world, and a self, he has never known.
Shot on location during the tournament itself, the first feature ever filmed at a FIFA World Cup, Ali El Arabi’s coming-of-age story was inspired by a real Indian worker he met in Qatar in 2022. Set against the noise and colour of a nation hosting the world, it captures the tournament from the inside, among the young people who made it happen far from home, each carrying a dream of their own. From the director of ‘Captains of Zaatari’, it is a film about loneliness and belonging, about dreams that seem impossible, and the hope that someone, somewhere, is listening.
Shot on location during the tournament itself, the first feature ever filmed at a FIFA World Cup, Ali El Arabi’s coming-of-age story was inspired by a real Indian worker he met in Qatar in 2022. Set against the noise and colour of a nation hosting the world, it captures the tournament from the inside, among the young people who made it happen far from home, each carrying a dream of their own. From the director of ‘Captains of Zaatari’, it is a film about loneliness and belonging, about dreams that seem impossible, and the hope that someone, somewhere, is listening.
