Men in the Arena (2017)
★★ — Men in the Arena (2017)
There's a genuinely compelling story buried somewhere inside Men in the Arena, and that's precisely what makes it a little frustrating to sit with. Two young Somali men, both in their late teens, playing football for their national team while navigating one of the most dangerous and impoverished environments on the planet. That's a story with real weight behind it. So why does it feel like we're only ever skimming the surface?
The documentary follows these two players through their lives and their football, and the hardships on show are real and present. Poverty, instability, the grinding oppression that defines daily life in Somalia. You can see it in their surroundings, in the conditions they live and train in. The material circumstances of their lives are documented clearly enough. But the emotional and interior lives of these two young men? That's where the film runs into a wall it never quite figures out how to get over.
And the reason, when you think about it, is completely understandable. Al-Shabaab, the radical Islamist group that controls vast swathes of Somalia, casts a long shadow over everything. Nobody in this film speaks freely, and you can feel it. There's a guardedness to the interviews, a careful self-censorship that you can't blame anyone for in the slightest, but which means the film never gets the raw honesty it needs to really land. People are frightened. Of course they are. And when people are frightened, they don't tell you what they actually think, and a documentary built on restrained, cautious answers is always going to struggle.
The filmmakers clearly had good intentions, and I don't want to be too hard on them, because the logistical challenge of making anything in that part of the world must be enormous. Getting cameras in there at all is an achievement. But good intentions don't automatically produce depth, and this film needed a lot more of it. The two subjects deserved a film that really dug into who they are, what football means to them beyond the surface level, and what it costs them emotionally to hold onto that passion in those circumstances. We get glimpses, but only glimpses.
It reminded me a little of the challenge faced by Next Goal Wins (2014), another football documentary operating in difficult, unfamiliar territory. That one managed to find its emotional core, though. This one doesn't quite get there.
What you're left with is something that feels like a solid news report stretched to documentary length. Informative, yes. Worth watching if you know nothing about the situation in Somalia and want a gentle introduction? Probably. But as a character study of two young men trying to build something meaningful through sport while everything around them is stacked against them, it doesn't deliver what it promises. You come out knowing roughly the same things you could have gleaned from a well-written magazine piece, and that's a shame.
There's a two star film here, and a four star film that I suspect was always just out of reach given the circumstances. I won't pretend I wasn't a little bored at points, but I won't pretend I didn't care about these two lads either. That tension is probably the most interesting thing Men in the Arena produces, and it's entirely unintentional.
Two stars.
Rating: ★★ | Year: 2017 | Watched: 2025-06-10
Where to watch
Watch in the UK
Rent: Apple TV Store · Amazon Video · Google Play Movies · YouTube
Buy: Apple TV Store · Amazon Video · Google Play Movies · YouTube
Physical: Amazon UK · Zavvi
Watch in the US
Rent: Amazon Video · Apple TV Store · Google Play Movies · YouTube
Buy: Amazon Video · Apple TV Store · Google Play Movies · YouTube
Physical: Amazon US
Affiliate disclosure: Movies With Macca may earn a small commission on purchases or subscriptions started via these links. It costs you nothing extra.
Related on Movies With Macca
More from Kenya: Supa Modo (2018) · Nairobi Half Life (2012)
More from the 2010s: Wonder (2017) · Beautiful Boy (2018) · The Witch (2015) · What We Do in the Shadows (2014)
More documentary: Letter from Siberia (1957) · Lessons of Darkness (1992) · Style Wars (1983) · Here and Elsewhere (1976)
