Idea, Director, Editing: Belinde Ruth Stieve
Director of Photography: Rudolf Dornis - Still Photography: Indra Wegener

Voice-overs: Bianca Blessing and Wolfgang Blessing (German Version), B.R. Stieve (English Version)
Music / Shakuhachi: Nawina Hanada

With Maliko Hayashi (Sado-artist) and Yuki Sekikawa-Klink (Shodo-artist)

Interviewees at Werder Bremen (2oo5 and 2oo6):
Nelson Haedo Valdez, Valérien Ismaël and Christian Schulz (players)
Karl-Heinz Kamp and Thomas Schaaf (coaching staff)

In the season of 2oo3/o4 Werder Bremen's footballers won the German Championship and German Cup.
The squad consisted of 29 players, 5 of which had 5 or less appearances in the season's 44 matches, 5 did not play at all.

On the basis of interviews with players and members of the coaching staff of Werder Bremen this documentary focuses on the situation of professional footballers in the waiting: players that take part in the team's training week after week, and then have to watch the bigger part of the matches from the sidelines. It is investigated how they cope with life in the shadows, keep their motivation alive and how and what they contribute to the development and success of the whole team.

On the visual side the film confronts football with the Japanese art of shodo („the way of writing“ - Japanese calligraphy). Here the work of Bremen based Japanese artist Yuki Sekikawa-Klinkis is introduced: the preparation, painting resp. writing of calligraphies, various elements of shodo-technique and interpretation of the written Japanese characters in terms of Zen philosophy.

So the world of football – the everyday routine and the exceptional, the team and individual players – appear in a different light. Through repitition, rituals, training and practice of craft and skills routine emerges. And at some point beauty, and art. This is true for shodô as well as for football.

A film about people in the shadow, who wait, who long to to be in the light, who are on their way.