TV documentary A/GER 2010, 82 min. Script: Christian Krönes & Florian Weigensamer Director of Photography: Manfred Lesiak Editing: Adam Wallisch Producers: Christian Krönes
Erlöse Österreich: 2.800,00 € * Erlöse International: 9.581,95 € * * lt. Angabe des Produzenten im berichtspflichtigen Zeitraum
Synopsis
This documentary shows the very contradictory consequences of globalization in a single, remote setting: in the secret world capital of soccer in northeast Pakistan, Sialkot. According to a Pakistani legend, the ball is not only round, but also a "Golden Ball," a "Gola Zareen." In Sialkot, 50,000 workers sew about forty million handmade balls per year. That's seventy percent of the hand-stitched soccer balls on the world market. It takes about three hours to finish a ball. The business, which began more than 100 years ago with the manufacture of balls, hockey sticks, and cricket bats for their British colonial masters, kept booming for decades and is economically important for all Pakistan. Now burgeoning competition is posing a threat: el cheapo balls from China are becoming better and better, and high-tech products from Thailand are becoming cheaper and cheaper.
