The National Galleries of Scotland have paid a reported £70,000 for a special cut of Douglas Gordon’s film Zidane: un Portrait du 21e Siècle. The film, which follows Zidane throughout a game between Real Madrid and Villareal on April 23, 2005, will premier in the UK at Edinburgh Film Festival before its theatrical release in September. Being the occasional pessimist that I am, I suspect that we in the US will have to wait until the film’s DVD release to see it. The DVD release is scheduled to take place before Christmas of this year.

In the meantime, the film has enjoyed surprising success at CineQuanon in Tokyo, Japan. Audiences have been leaving messages for Zidane at the theatre that will eventually be sent on to him.

Scotsman.com has posted a review of the film here:

Zinedine Zidane is a footballer. (If you didn’t know that, stop reading now. This film is not for you.)

In many ways, this is the soccer equivalent of Derek Jarman’s Blue. If you love the beautiful game, this will captivate you.

The Herald also has a capsule review of the film:

Gordon and Parreno’s portrait is as much a meditative piece of art as it is an elegy to a sportsman, and will appeal to football fans and film-goers alike.

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