Documentary filmmakers saw Zidane ragecoming

French Soccer Star Zinedine Zidane

Documentary filmmakers Douglas Gordon and Phlippe Parreno saw it coming.

The duo spent 10 months with French soccer star Zinedine Zidane while shooting "Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait" and were not surprised when the sensation shocked the world by headbutting an Italian defender in the chest during this summer's World Cup final in Berlin.

"I looked at his face (during the game's second half) and said to myself, 'A red card is coming,"' recalls Parreno, who watched the final on TV.

Gordon, who attended the France-Italy matchup at Berlin's Olympic Stadium, also sensed second-half danger as he saw distress increasingly etched on Zidane's face.

"I saw some of the same rage I'd seen in the past," he said. "You could sense his frustration."

Of course, audiences at the Toronto International Film Festival for the North American premiere of the French-Icelandic co-production are watching "Zidane" burdened by hindsight.

Gordon and Parreno shot their documentary April 23, 2005, when they and a crew of about 150 trained 17 cameras on Zidane as he and his team, Spain's Real Madrid, played Italy's Villarreal.

The cameras followed only Zidane for the entire game, virtually ignoring his fellow players and the stadium crowd, to create what Gordon and Parreno call a motion study and aesthetic portrait that captures the enigmatic athlete as never before.

"Zidane is so exposed on TV, but always from a distance," Gordon insists. In the feature documentary, Zidane rarely touches the ball. Instead, he roams the field, stalking his opponents like prey.

When Zidane does touch the ball, he quickly passes it to a teammate, before resuming his incessant roaming.

Gordon and Parreno's portrait does offer answers, however, as to why France, and much of the world, still revere Zidane despite his crashing out of the World Cup and possibly costing his country the championship.

"Zidane knows he's a great player, but he doesn't know why," Gordon said. "He'll say, 'I'm tough with myself, I challenge myself."'

While the documentary has had a French theatrical release, securing a run in North American theaters could prove a challenge, Gordon and Parreno admit, as soccer is less popular on this side of the Atlantic.

But Zidane's headbutt in Berlin might have changed those prospects for the good.

"This film could certainly play on pay-per-view TV. But we're hoping for theatrical," Gordon said.