Taika Waititi needed to “twist the truth” for ‘Next Goal Wins’
Director Taika Waititi’s next movie, Next Goal Wins, is based on the real story of the American Samoa football team, which famously lost a match 31-0 back in 2001, as detailed in 2014 documentary of the same name by Mike Brett and Steve Jamison.
Waititi admitted that he needed to take some liberties with the truth of the narrative in order to deliver the final product of the film. He’d been speaking about his new work ahead of its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival.
“I had to twist the truth,” Waititi said. “Otherwise, watch the documentary.” The film begins with the qualifiers for the World Cup quickly approaching and a newly-hired manager on board, Thomas Rongen, who’s played by Michael Fassbender.
Waititi was making his first appearance at the TIFF since his 2019 Academy Award-winning movie JoJo Rabbit was showing and said that Next Goal Wins is about finding one’s family, even though “sometimes it doesn’t need to be related by blood”.
“Find your tribe,” he noted. The likes of Will Arnett, Elisabeth Moss, Oscar Kightley, Kaimana, David Fane, Rachel House, Beulah Koale, Uli Latukefu, Semu Filipo and Lehi Falepapalangi make up the cast, although none were present at the TIFF amid the actors’ and writers’ strikes.
Waititi was instead joined by Jaiyah Saelua, a third gender in Polynesian society, and is the first openly non-binary and trans woman to compete in the FIFA World Cup. She is portrayed by Kaimana in the film.
Check out the trailer for Next Goal Wins below.
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