A movie which chronicles the infamous Sri Lanka National Handball team, which toured Germany under false pretenses in 2004 and then disappeared, made its official debut at the Venice Film Festival last week. Originally titled “No F’ing Handball” it will now go by the title “Machan” (Machan literally means brother-in-law in Sinhalese, but is also used as a slang term meaning mate or friend). According to several press reports the movie has received favorable audience reaction.

The film will be in theaters in Italy starting on 12 September and then will be released in Germany on 30 October. Additionally, the film is set to screen at the Toronto Film Festival later this month. No information has been provided concerning other cinematic debuts, but a film student that attended a screening in France said that the film’s director, Uberto Pasolini, hoped that the film would be released in the United States. The movie is in English and Sinhalese.

[b]Earlier Team Handball News Article on Film production:[/b] http://teamhandballnews.com/news.php?item.287
[b]Times of London Article:[/b] http://www.sundaytimes.lk/080803/TV/sundaytvtimes_07.html
[b]Hollywood Variety: [/b] http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=festivals&jump=story&id=1061&articleid=VR1117989477&cs=1
[b]London Telegraph:[/b] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2008/09/01/bfpasolini101.xml
[b]Student Blog on Movie Screening:[/b] http://blogs.uconn.edu/2007/fernando/?p=677
[b]Lanka Dissent:[/b] http://www.lankadissent.com/en/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1099:machan-a-daring-escape-to-prosperity-&catid=67:art&Itemid=271