Welcome to Est. 1999, the official blog of Abraham Translations. As is perhaps easy to surmise, the name of this blog reflects the year that Abraham Translations was founded.
It all began with the correction of a few texts that had been translated by another time-pressed translator. Within the year, translating had become my main source of income; now, it has long been the only way I put bacon on the table.
I am rather proud of many of the projects on which I have worked.
Est. 1999, basically, is a visual confirmation of past projects, a blowing of my own horn, a presentation of translator-related topics, and an occasional departure into other areas that I deem worthy of presenting. Enjoy.

Monday 1 August 2016

Hoffenheim – Das Leben ist kein Heimspiel (2010)

(Feature documentary by Frank Pfeiffer & Rouven Rech, Sommerhaus Filmproduktion in co-production with Filmaufbau Leipzig & ZDF.) 
The title translates into "Life Isn't a Home Game", but outside of Germany I believe the film was simply titled Hoffenheim. Hoffenheim – Das Leben ist kein Heimspiel premièred within the scope of the 2010 Filmfestival Max Ophüls Preis. 
I did the subtitles to this great documentary. (If I remember correctly, one of the directors [Rouven Rech] contacted me directly; I later ended up later working on another intriguing documentary of his, Adopted [2011].) In general, I hate sports films, fiction or non-fiction, but Hoffenheim – Das Leben ist kein Heimspiel has ended up being one of my favorite non-fiction sport films about soccer (a position it shares with only one other movie, the Dutch soccer documentary The Other Final [2003 / trailer]).
German Trailer:
 
Hoffenheim – Das Leben ist kein Heimspiel, which took three years to film, tells the tale of how the local (as in "amateur") soccer team TSG 1899 Hoffenheim came to enter the first division, where it still plays today. The team as it is now known, as well as its home stadium, were literally built by the multi-millionaire Dietmar Hopp.
As Wikipedia explains: "Hopp is the chief financial backer of the German football club TSG 1899 Hoffenheim. When Hopp, who had played in the club's youth setup, started supporting the club in 2000, Hoffenheim were playing in the fifth division of German football. Today, Hoffenheim are in the First Bundesliga, and in their first season in the top flight in 2008–09, they led the league at its winter break. Hopp also spent €100 million to build a new 30,000-seat stadium called Rhein-Neckar-Arena near Sinsheim for the club."
Hoffenheim - Das Leben ist kein Heimspiel follows the movers and shakers that made the team what it is now as well as the original Joe-Schmoe fans of the former local team which, thanks to the magic cure known as "unlimited money", became big time.
As Zeit Online more or less wrote: "The opening scene of Frank Pfeiffer and Rouven Rech's award-winning documentary film Das Leben ist kein Heimspiel takes place in January, 2007. For three years, the two filmmakers accompanied the former small town soccer club TSG 1899 Hoffenheim. And if there was ever a time when it was worth following a football club around for awhile, then it was during the later naughts for Hoffenheim. [...] This film would not count as one of the most impressive sports documentaries around if it merely told the story of Hoffenheimer's success. Instead, it captures the ambivalence between tradition and modernity, between sausage and fireworks. German professional football took about 25 years to shake off the stigma of provincialism and concern itself with making money. TSG Hoffenheim managed that in just three years. It was an experiment of maximum acceleration that did transpire without bumps. [...]"