Match Factor

Match Factor is a story about the power the prejudices and the strength of trust. Ahmed, a young football player from Iraq comes to Berlin to participate in the FIFA Charity Match. When he disappears from his hotel, a search for him is mounted as a possible case of defection. Brigitte, a young policewoman is on patrol duty when she comes across him.

"Ahmed"(Navid Navid) is a young man who finds himself lost in Berlin and so he seeks some directions from a police officer. She (Anneke Kim Sarnau) sends him on his way only for a call to come through on her radio advising that a player from the visiting Iraqi football team has gone walkies and that they must keep a look out for a young man who fits his description. She sets off to catch up with "Ahmed" and in her car they have a conversation - in English - that may prove to her whether he is just a nervous young man in a strange place or might his bag actually have something more menacing in it. Navid is really quite convincing here as the anxious lad and his glances and palpable wariness as they are driving work well to create in us a sense of apprehension that asks what might we do. To trust or suspect? Worth a watch.