A big crowd turned out to see Arabic football film ‘The United’ at the Arab Film Festival, screened at Parramatta Riverside and presented by the Western Sydney Wanderers and AFC Asian Cup 2015.
‘The United’ is Walt Disney’s first ever Arabic language film and is the story of a legendary Egyptian football coach who comes out of retirement to coach a team of pan-Arab misfits and raise funding for their football academy in Jordan.
The film was preceded by an Asian Cup Quiz and a Q & A with Western Sydney Wanderers defender Nikolai Topor-Stanley and goalkeeper Ante Covic.
Topor-Stanley said that football has taken him to some amazing places in the world including Beijing and Tehran.
“I have experienced the passion of Arabic football fans when the Olyroos played Iraq in Gosford. They were amazing,” said Topor-Stanley.
Ante Covic also spoke about his football journey
“The wildest place I played was in Greece where the front office of the club was firebombed and for some matches we needed a Police escort home,” revealed Covic.
When asked his thoughts on Australia’s new frontier in Asian football he said, “It’s been great for Australian football.
“We can’t wait for this Wednesday’s game against Guangzhou Evergrande. Even though their combined salary is $50 million, we are very confident of an upset.”
Topor-Stanley and Covic mixed with fans in the foyer and met the Festival special guest actor Saleh Bakri, the “Brad Pitt of Palestine”, who starred in the Opening night film ‘When I saw you’.
The big winner on the night was Western Sydney Wanderers member Ali Besiso who won the framed, signed Wanderers team poster for correctly answering that Tomi Juric was the Wanderers Golden Boot in Hyundai A-League season 2013/14.
