“Ultras” explores rather fittingly the culture of Ultras in 8 countries and 4 continents including England, Sweden, Italy, Morocco, Indonesia, Egypt, Mexico and Argentina.
Ultras are those noisy, swaying, boisterous and vociferous masses at football games. Are they suffering from Stadium Schizophrenia? Masses of the life weary, battered by ordinary cares and problems until they join their fellow Ultras in the stadium and become ensconced in the comfort of familial fanaticism.
A common global theme of the Ultras as recounted by the Ultras in the documentary is feeling like part of a family where ordinary cares of life are temporarily thrust aside with Ultras caring for each other in an imaginary familial web. They enter a different reality.
They are youthful and almost exclusively men fuelled by pride and litres of beer although the intoxication may be tribally induced more than through alcohol.
If there is one line of ultra significance it is from a Swedish Ultra stating Ultras make you more than a spectator. You become part of the match and in many ways “bigger than what happens on the pitch”.
You must have seen them on the telly in the stands unfurling massive tifos, singing and waving their hands in choregraphed fashion. But you may have seen and watched on the news the occasional violence of soccer fans but are they Ultras or legless lager lout hooligans manipulating high emotions?
As Ultras are young men in a macho movement some feel they represent a threat to the political order and police “control” is no more than provocation justifying police repression. Is it, as in Morocco where poverty, lack of housing and poor medical care a breeding ground for anti-power structure anger?
We have professional football in North America but it is distant and marginal compared to North American football, hockey and baseball. The documentary should be of keen interest to North American audiences who will be well rewarded with “Ultras” making its North American premiere at Toronto Hot Docs on 30April and 1May2025.
It is a story solely from the mouths of the Ultras and your conclusion may be Ultras transcend being a football fan. It is far deeper than that simplicity. It is a way of life founded in alienation, loneliness and powerlessness. Being an Ultra makes its cadres feel as if they are somebodies in some societies treating them as nobodies and treats them as such. Their fanaticism, marching, singing and costuming (particularly in Poland) has a chilling analogy to Hitler rallies.
This Swedish, Finnish and Danish 89-minute documentary is by Ragnhild Ekner.
RKS 2025 Documentary Film Rating 77/100.
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