Tackling Life (2019)

This carefully observed documentary tells the story of the Berlin Bruisers, Berlin’s first gay-inclusive rugby team. What started out as an informal ball game in the Tiergarten five years ago is now an official rugby league club, even if they are, in the words of one Bruiser, “Berlin’s worst rugby team”. Told from the perspective of several team-members, the film follows its protagonists around both the rugby field and their personal lives, in the process providing an intersectional portrait of masculinity, and expanding the clichés so often applied to gender and sexuality into a richly textured account of the universal search for belonging and personal fulfilment. Made with a deeply inclusive tenderness and intelligence, Tackling Life is the graduation film of first-time feature director Johannes List