The German tennis player Boris Becker attended the Berlinale this Sunday, two months after leaving a prison in the United Kingdomto present a documentary dedicated to his sporting achievements and convinced that, despite his mistakes, he has time to become a “better person”.
“They are eight months and six days in a prison where every morning you wonder what is left of your life.“, explained the three-time Wimbledon champion, surrounded by the director of the film “Boom! Boom! The World vs. Boris Becker”, Alex Gibney.
The film begins with an interview recorded a few days before the sentence was heard. He spoke to the camera with a swollen face and close to tears, in a premonition of the two-and-a-half-year sentence he was handed for financial irregularities.
His tax crimes are estimated at around 2.7 million euros. The sentence followed a chain of financial problemsa declaration of insolvency from 2017, a debt of almost 60 million euros and a loan pending settlement of 3.5 million euros for a villa he owns in Mallorca.
The interview was followed by a photo of a swarm of cameras filming Becker’s arrival at a London court, dress elegantly and hold hands with his current partner, Lilian De Carvalho Monteiro. After hearing the sentence, he went directly to London Wandsworth prison.
“I’m sitting here now, I feel good. I set myself the goal of becoming a better person.. Hope is the last thing that is lost,” he said, a few hours before the official premiere of his movie.
Gibney, winner of an Oscar in 2008 for “Taxi to the Dark Side”, builds his film with two interviews with Becker -the one from 2022 and a previous one from 2019-, photos of their most legendary matches and interviews with other retired stars, such as John McEnroe, Mats Wilander or Bjorn Borg.
From pictures of the German teenager who won his first Wimbledon at the age of 17, he tries to explain his strengths and weaknesses. “The life of a tennis winning machine is harder than you thinkBecker said.
Barbara Feltus, the actress to whom he was married between 1993 and 2001 and with whom he had two children, Noah and Elias, is the only ex-wife in his life who appears in interviews.
His divorce followed his relationship with model Angela Ermakovawith whom he had a sexual encounter in the broom room of a luxury London hotel, as a result of which his daughter Anna was born.
A chain of million-dollar compensation began, which was replaced by attempts to rebuild his life and new scandals, which in Gipsey’s film can be seen through tabloid covers.
“The last thing I want to do is win sympathy. I am aware of my mistakes“, said Becker, more serene than the first interviews broadcast in Germany after his release from prison by media such as the German tabloid newspaper “Bild”.
The documentary about Becker is shown in the Special section of the Berlinalewhere “Love to love you, Donna Summer” will also premiere, directed by Roger Ross Williams and which will include unpublished material from the former queen of pop.
During the first days of the festival, “Joan Baez IA Noise”, by Karen O’Connor and Maeve O’Boyle, was releasedwhich includes the American singer’s last tour, in 2018, as well as archive material and family photos.
The legendary singer didn’t just attend the premiere. He also hummed a song during the round of questions after the screening of the documentary, amid loud applause from those present.
Source: La Verdad
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