Film Review: Another League 2026 Spanish & Latin American Film Festival

★★★½

The Scoop 2026 HSBC Spanish & Latin American Film Festival

There’s a scene in Marta Díaz de Lope Díaz’s Another League which would be hilarious were it not so cringeworthy. A class of teenage girls receives a visit from a well-coiffed speaker, looking a lot like Margaret Thatcher. She represents the bizarrely named “Women’s Section” of the Spanish government.

“What’s the best way a woman can serve her country?” she asks her audience. “Being a wife and mother,” she replies (to silence). A documentary about a day in the life of the Perfect Woman of Europe 1970 – who cooks, cleans, shops, and cooks again, smiling radiantly – rams home the message.

It’s the perfect opener to a story where overcoming sexism is the greatest hurdle.

Beginning in 1970, this fact-based film traces the history of Spain’s first women’s soccer team, moving from the muddy paddocks of suburban Madrid to an actual arena in coastal Murcia. It’s no small thing. It’s their first international match – and the springboard for the enormously successful Spanish team today.

Fans of Ted Lasso will appreciate that nothing comes easily in the world of team sports. However, the story of how sports promoter Javier Poga (Daniel Ibáñez), with a little help from his friends, formed, marketed and launched the women’s team, takes adversity to a whole new level. Mamá María, this is one hard slog.

Through the backdrop of the final years of the fascist Franco regime, Díaz strives to convey how deeply conservative – and sexist – much of society was. Not just the older generation, but the young, not just men but women.

In the first half of the film, almost every scene throws up examples of the gender divide in daily life. When girls from the team go to a sports store to ask for some footy boots, the salesman assumes they’re asking on their brothers’ behalf. Blokes in the bar discussing a men’s game are gobsmacked when a woman perfectly analyses the match. And so it goes on.

The Scoop Another League Spanish & Latin American Film Festival — Beginning in 1970 Another League traces the history of Spains first womens soccer team

It’s a disturbing indictment, but there’s a danger here of flogging the sexism theme. Okay, we’ve got the picture. It’s a man’s world.

More impactful are government attitudes. When Poga approaches Mr Medina (José Troncoso), the head of the football federation, to grant the women’s team professional status, Medina’s attitude is laughably arcane. Try and keep women’s soccer as “just a bit of fun”, he advises. “No papers, no contracts, no official matches, dammit.”

The head of the “Women’s Section” is horrified about girls playing soccer for different seasons. It’s been proven, she advises, that playing soccer can stop women from having babies.

Truly eye-opening are the mixed reactions of the mainly male spectators to the game. Sexist taunts from the crowd – “Look at the goalie’s arse!” – serve only to fire up the players whose prowess is highlighted by flashy moves where legs or heads dominate the frame. At the end of one match, one player’s father sends her home in disgrace; another asks the coach how he can sign up his daughter. Change is afoot.

Personalising sports stories is de rigueur to truly involve the audience, and the focus is on Nati (Sofía de Iznájar), the girl who lives with a struggling single mum, dead against these soccer shenanigans.

Nati likes nothing better than kicking a ball around with the boys in her street. She also happens to be a star in the making. It’s going to be a rags-to-riches story that will satisfy but not dominate proceedings.

This is a busy film. There’s a lot of information to cover, and that includes presenting team dynamics, played convincingly by this ensemble cast – the petty jealousies, the bullying, the singsongs, the joy and the overwhelming determination.

The Scoop Another League 2026 HSBC Spanish and Latin American Film Festival — This is a punchy feel good movie that rarely misses a beat

Díaz even squeezes in a lesbian romance, though this doesn’t quite ring true. Is she ticking off all the issues of a single-sex team, or did this really happen? Either way, it comes across as slightly tokenistic.

What is entertaining are the gentle comedic turns. Javier Poga and his assistant really are Ted Lasso types, initially bumbling, unprepared and out of their depth. When Poga realises he’s failed to think through kits for the players or even where they should change, the girls take over the practicalities. Daniel Ibáñez sustains the role of Poga beautifully with his comedic facial expressions and controlled timing.

The pace of the film is constant, with a good mix of swiftly moving scenes. The gaudy pink hair salon with its old-fashioned dryers – and clients – serves as a neat contrast to the muddy fields and streets that dominate the setting. As a space for gossip and outrageous ideas, Díaz can swing toward the absurd here and give us a laugh amid the drama.

As obstacles mount in putting together Spain’s first international women’s team – venues cancel at the last minute, players quit and return, managers fight, authorities change their minds – we know that it’s all going to work out fine. A glimpse of the Spanish women’s team today, at the beginning of the film, is a proud reminder.

The final scenes of the film are treated in an original way – not every sports movie is based on scores – and signal just how far women’s soccer has come in its first fifty years.

Another League is a punchy, feel-good movie that rarely misses a beat. In the words of famous soccer commentator, Andrés Cantor, I’d say, “Goooooalll!”

Another League screens at the 2026 HSBC Spanish & Latin American Film Festival, taking place nationally from 10 June to 12 July (dates vary) in Melbourne, Ballarat, Adelaide, Perth, Canberra, Brisbane, Sydney, Byron Bay and Ballina.

Tickets are now on sale at the website. Downloadable program is here.

Website: https://spanishfilmfestival.com/

Socials: https://www.instagram.com/spanishfilmfest/

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