An Offside Story: The Israeli Periphery in Sports Films

Abstract

Sports films are defined as such because they feature competitions, athletes, fans, or other aspects of amateur and professions sports. Yet most if not all these movies are also about other topics that are enhanced by the sports perspective, which is one of the most popular expressions of modern culture. Israeli sports movies often deal with politics, culture, and the periphery. The purpose of this study was to analyze the dominant representations and recurring themes in Israeli sports films that directly and indirectly touch on the social and geographical periphery. To this end, we chose 10 movies set in peripheral localities and representative of their residents. Since the study focused on symbols of the periphery as it is depicted in cinema and not necessarily as it is in everyday reality, the selected movies were set in real places as well as in places invented for the purpose of the cinematic narrative. This article is based on a study that included qualitative and visual analysis of the films. The findings of the analysis revealed three main themes: poverty as a contemporary attribute, periphery ethnicity, and sports as a symbol of hope. The findings indicate that for the most part the periphery is presented negatively, while sports, on the other hand, is portrayed as a means, whether real or virtual, for social change. Indeed, these movies usually focus on the human environment, on individuals and communities, and on their attitude toward sports as an integrative tool.