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Wheelchair rugby. Don’t know squat about the sport? Doesn’t matter. Don’t fancy the idea of a documentary about “special” athletes – the kind you congratulate yourself for supporting? Well, the guys featured in Murderball don’t want your pity. You don’t have to try to love this movie, it’ll knock you down on its own. The film’s real-life star, Mark Zupan, is a tattooed, seated gladiator with a goatee, a smouldering glare and a tough-guy charm. He was 18 when he broke his neck in a car accident. In 1996 he began playing wheelchair rugby and has since become the spokesman for the American Paralympic team. We meet Zupan’s teammates, an extraordinary group of men who are unusually articulate about their experiences and feelings. They take on the world’s best, including Joe Soares, a former US champion who was cut from the team and bitterly defected to coach arch-rivals Canada. These amazing stories of recovery, triumph, redemption, romance and family are tremendously rewarding and moving. Unlike anything you’ve seen before, Murderball is a powerfully life-affirming and downright entertaining film that will be remembered as one of the year’s best.
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