| Playoff פלייאוף |
|
|---|---|
| Directed by | Eran Riklis |
| Produced by | Olivier Delbosc Udo Happel Marc Missonnier Moshe Edri Leon Edri Michael Sharfstein Marc Wächter |
| Written by | David Akerman Gidon Maron Eran Riklis |
| Starring | Danny Huston Stephan Beck Hanns Zischler Max Riemelt |
| Cinematography | Rainer Klausmann |
| Studio | TLV Art Rabinovich Fund Partner |
| Distributed by | HOT Channel 10 (Israel) Tofia Communications |
| Release date(s) | November 24, 2011 (Israel) |
| Running time | 107 Minutes |
| Country | Israel Germany France |
| Language | German English Hebrew |
| Budget | 25 Million Dollar |
Playoff (In Hebrew: פלייאוף) is a 2011 biographical film, written and directed by Israeli director, Eran Riklis. The film "Playoff" is inspired by the life of Ralph Klein, Israel's most famous basketball coach, ever.
The movie tells the story of legendary Israeli basketball coach Max Stoller. He became a national hero, when he made Maccabi Tel Aviv into European Champions in the late Seventies, one of Israel's first great international sporting successes. But Max became a national traitor equally fast, when he then accepted the against-all-odds job of turning the totally hopeless West-German basketball team into European winners.
Max always maintains that Germany - where he was born before the war - means nothing to him, and that training their national team is just another job on his path to NBA glory. But things aren't as simple as he refuses to speak German to the young players. The only person he seems to be able to relate to is a Turkish immigrant woman Deniz, and her cheeky teenage daughter Sema. Max just about falls in love with Deniz - and does succeed in reinventing the Germans as European champions. When he discovers what happened to his own family in the 1940s - it is not what he had expected. And he will realize that one cannot run away forever from one's own past and demons.