In the Hands of the Gods, a low-budget documentary following five freestyle footballers journey across the Americas to meet their hero Diego Maradona, made a splash at the Cannes film festival, held a star-studded premiere, received rave reviews and is now in selected cinemas nationwide, Screenjabber's Anna Krahn talks to directors Benjamin and Gabe Turner, producers Leo Pearlman and Ben Winston and two of the stars — Woody and Jeremy — about the incredible journey they took to make the movie and the journey they’ve faced since it finished.
Were you surprised at reception you got at the launch in Cannes?
Gabe Turner: That was one of the weirdest periods of time ever. We cut it and edited it in Soho but we didn’t have enough money to spend for marketing or anything. We always used to say to each other if we got one art house cinema we’d be happy and then Cannes happened.
Jeremy: I’ll be honest I didn’t trust you guys (he says to the directors and producers), I thought they were going to make a crusty little British film, maybe go on to Channel 5, at best one independent cinema.
Gabe: We didn’t want to get their hopes so we were playing it down, getting them prepared for being happy with a DVD they could play to their mates.
Woody: The biggest they ever said was an independent cinema which we thought was massive and every time we spoke to them the bar just kept rising and I haven't had anything negative hit us and I’m quite worried about that — law of averages something’s going to knock us back and it just hasn’t.
Was the finished product was it anything like you expected it to be when you first started?
Gabe: It was better than we could imagine. We were always focused on the fact that they were very interesting boys from a very interesting background. We did have high hopes just because they were so charismatic. We thought it was an inspiring story whether they did it or not. We liked the fact that they were kind of ‘Fuck you. We’re gonna do what we’re gonna do’ kind of people.
Leo: One of the best example was when we were in Dallas in the car park and we were stuck in Dallas for about a week we pretty much thought the film was ending right here and there was no money, no way of moving on. We were sat in Deni’s diner with the four boys then Sami (one of the freestylers) comes running in and he says ‘I’ve solved it. I’ve got the answer.’ We said ‘What is it?’ He says ‘I’m gonna steal a car.
Gabe: We were like, ‘really, that’s terrible’ (sarcastically)
Leo: The four other boys were like ‘what?!’ We were all sitting there not saying anything but trying to be like no, we’re not stealing a car!
Did you have any preconceptions? Any ideas about how you wanted to portray each of them?
Leo: We went into it saying — Sami is a Somalian refugee. He’s got issues with his mother, if he talks about it fantastic, if he doesn’t, he doesn’t. This isn’t a film where we interviewed them. This was a film where when they were ready to talk they talked and when that happened it happened on screen and you know going into it that these five guys have these amazing back stories and you hope through the emotion and the tension of the journey you’re going to get those pieces but we didn’t have any preconception because we generally had no idea.
Gabe: The one thing we didn’t want to do was force anything. We didn’t want to say, give us your life story. As interesting as it was, it had to come out naturally for you to have that feeling and I suppose the best example is the bit with mike where he’s on the beach in Acopulco and he talks about his two friends who died. He actually came up to me and said ‘I’m feeling a bit emotional, I wouldn’t mind talking later.’ So I went to the beach and said ‘What’s up?’ and it all came out. I think it helped as well that they didn’t think we were trying to get anything. Although the first week and a half we suffered from that because we weren’t doing anything, it really paid off in the end.
Leo: The only thing we made serious the whole trip is that we weren’t going to help them. They came to us with this idea. It was their journey and if they failed or succeeded it was down to them and I think they were quite surprised because they’re quite young and they thought that when the shit really hits the fan, we’ll help them out but the shit hit the fan and we were like ‘what?’ and then they were like ‘oh shit.’
Gabe: We all went through moments where we were struggling and we all cried. It was difficult because you want to help or give them some advice and we had mixed feelings about what they should and shouldn’t do and we just couldn’t say anything.
Leo: There’s no harder moment. You think ‘should everything override this?’ They are like little brothers and when you spend so much time together you get very close.
Gabe: We’d worked together before and we were all mates. There were times like, when Sami cheats on his girlfriend. That was the most difficult thing I’ve ever done for work. He came up to me and said, ‘Please don’t put that in. I’ll do anything,’ and we said, ‘We can’t not use it. I don’t want to screw you over, but as it stands in the film at the moment you needed that low point of Sami to start that rebuilding.’ You can’t explain that to an 18-year-old boy. I was like, I understand what you’re saying and as a good bloke I wouldn’t put it in but my job is to make a documentary. The pay off after all of that 6 weeks and they realised that this was really their dream and they made it happen. They wouldn’t have felt the same with our help.
It’s amazing to see them now because I think that they didn’t realise. They had no idea it would go anywhere and they wanted it to say to their mates, ‘look we did this,’ but then in Cannes they had these massive images of them and Sami just walked up to his one and you say him for about 5 minutes just looking at himself.
Leo: It’s the little things though. Yeh, It’s really cool seeing Sami at a premiere and party but it is so much cooler when you hear him say he’s living in sheltered accommodation and not on a Quiksave roof and that he talks to his mum now and not that she won’t let him in the house. That’s really amazing.
So come on, how big was the budget?
Gabe: Imagine the smallest budget you can, halve it and that was our budget
Leo: They were sleeping in the car. We were sleeping in the cheapest youth hostel motel shithole you could find.
What was the most memorable thing for you during the trip?
Woody: Guatemala. When I stayed with the family in the mud hut it was an eye-opener and the beautiful evening I had there made me feel really happy about the whole situation. That kind of poverty really saddens me but no-one really should feel sorry for them. They’re really happy people and they don’t know the materialistic crap that were surrounded by. They’re happier for the finer things in life, waking up in the morning happy, being with your family, sun blazing.
What about low points?
Woody: There were so many ups and downs, when I found out that there were only two flights and we had to split that was a real down point.
Jeremy: Sometimes when we performed and they wouldn’t want to give anything. I’d do a 20 minute performance and I wouldn’t drop the ball and at the end of it I’d only have $1 or $2 and I used to take it to heart and beat myself up about it.
What was the most ludicrous thing you did to raise the money?
Jeremy: I balanced the ball on my head and went down on my knee and proposed to a girl in LA on Venice Beach, She didn’t say yes. She just giggled and gave me a dollar. A naughty thing we did is take most of the money out of the cup and leave just the coins and then we’d go over to a dark place, put it on the floor and as people were walking past someone would knock it over eventually and then we’d go ‘ahh what have you done, you’ve gotta give me a dollar for that.’
Did you learn anything about yourself and each other?
Woody: From a personal point of view it showed me anything I ever want to put myself to I really believe I can make it happen. We were so up against it and we made the best out of ourselves and did really well. I knew Jeremy really well, we’ve worked a lot on jobs and we always speak. I’m very interested in his (Christian) beliefs and just from a respectful point of view, as a friend I want to know what he’s like and how he practices just so I can show him respect in the way I hold myself when I’m around him.
So boys, what did you actually think of the film?
Woody: I’ve seen it twice. The first time I was focusing on what an absolute donut I looked and you see yourself, you analyse yourself. Then when I watched it again and I watched it properly and took a back seat as if I wasn’t in it, I was blown away and that’s nothing to do with what we did but it’s the way these guys put it together, unbelievable (to directors and producers) You guys are amazing.
Gabe: You see why we bring Woody to the interview.