Die schönste Nebensache der Welt
Tanja Bubbel
In the 50s, women’s football was still referred to as ladies’ football and officially banned by the German Football Association. Nevertheless, the first international matches took place in sold-out stadiums – with players from Dortmund in the German team. The film traces the development of women’s football in Germany and starts with the players Christa Kleinhans, Renate Bress, Anne Droste, Inge Kwast and Grete Eisleben. In 1955, they were the founding members of Fortuna Dortmund, Germany’s first women’s football team.
The film also features interviews with Sabine Seidel and Gisela Liedemann, two pioneers of women’s football in East Germany; they played for Turbine Potsdam in the 70s. Sabine Seidel, who is known for her unstoppable shots, is still considered one of the GDR’s best women players today. Petra Landers from Bochum was a member of the first official national women’s team. She was presented with a coffee set by the German Football Association when the team won the European Championship in 1989. The players talk about their eventful and moving life as footballers. Extensive archive material from East and West German television also reflects the incredibly misogynistic attitudes that have prevailed in the history of women’s football.
Director and screenwriter Tanja Bubbel produced Die schönste Nebensache der Welt (The Most Wonderful Pastime in the World) as her graduation film at Film University Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF (formerly HFF).
In cooperation with the German Football Museum, Dortmund
Awards for ›Die schönste Nebensache der Welt‹
Preis für den Besten Frauenfußballfilm – 11mm International Football Film Festival Berlin 2011
Tanja Bubbel
Author, director and dramatic adviser Tanja Bubbel was born in Bochum-Wattenscheid and lives and works in Berlin. After graduating from the Freie Universität Berlin and University of Chicago with a degree in philosophy, she studied Screenwriting and Dramaturgy at the Film University Babelsberg in Potsdam. In 2011/12, she was awarded a scholarship from the Munich Screenplay Workshop. Since then she has directed two shorts and since 2014 written regularly for television, including the series In Gefahr, Im Namen der Gerechtigkeit, Verbrechen aus Leidenschaft, Einsatz in Köln – die Kommissare and Schicksale.
Films by Tanja Bubbel
Spielplatz 2014 | L-Liebe 2013 | Glioblastom 2008 | Miss Bildung – Deutsche Frauen, deutsche Treue 2007
