Starting 5

Story

Documentary Marvin Willoughby appeared 35 times for the German national basketball team. After his career, he did social work in various Hamburg hotspots and worked with the city’s most talented players. In 2014, together with friends he brought professional basketball back to Hamburg. Since then, the Hamburg Towers have combined professional sport with social work in their newly built Inselparkhalle. The project’s dimensions are huge: an arena worth millions and endless negotiations with politicians, sponsor and player’s agents mean a lot of stress for Marvin. But he fights. With himself and together with Hamed, the Towers’ trainer, and Lenny and Louis, two of Germany’s biggest talents. For sporting success, you need money – and to get money, you need sporting success. A Catch-22 situation more likely to break you than be broken. Starting 5 portrays one of the most exciting sporting projects being pursued in Hamburg.

Director

Milan Skrobanek (*1984) studied film at the School for Visual Arts in Hamburg and the École des Beaux-Arts in Marseille. After graduating with his film Die Chinesen Europas [Europe's Chinese] about the German table-tennis team, he went on to make the football film Im Derby-Dreieck [In the Derby Triangle]. Starting 5 is his third sports documentary.