East Timorese youths playing football in Dili (AFP)
SEOUL — A film about a South Korean soccer coach and his youth team in East Timor will be screened at United Nations headquarters in New York on Thursday, a spokeswoman said.
"A Barefoot Dream", to be released in Korea on June 24, will be shown to an audience of 600 UN ambassadors, staff and officials of other organisations at the conference room.
It will be the first commercial feature film ever to be screened at the UN, although documentaries have been shown there before, said Song Hyo-Jung, a spokeswoman for Seoul-based producer Showbox.
Showbox said the screening was arranged by Seoul's foreign ministry after an official saw the premiere and recommended the movie to the world body, which played the lead role in preparing the impoverished nation for independence.
The film is based on the true story of former Korean footballer Kim Shin-Hwan, who starts a new life in East Timor first as a coffee dealer then as an agent for football boots.
The venture ends in failure since no-one can afford boots and Kim starts coaching the country's youth team, leading it to surprise victories in international tournaments in 2004 and 2005.
Four of the dozens of Timorese children featured in the film flew to Korea to attend the Seoul premiere last month. The moviemakers have started a donation campaign here to help build a football field in East Timor.
East Timor gained independence in 2002 after 400 years of Portuguese and 25 years of Indonesian rule. An estimated 100,000-200,000 people died violently or from starvation and disease during its years as an Indonesian province.
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