In the land of machos, in the 1970s, girls who wanted to play ball rather than dolls had better bring earplugs. "Go back to your kitchen, tomboy!", "Whores!", "We see your asses"... Here are some of the flowery expressions that the first women who dared to compete with men for their backyard, the football field, were able to hear before entering the game.
In Spain, this comedy of manners is called Pioneras, which means “pioneers”. It is released in France on Wednesday November 11 under a new title which will delight supporters of Olympique de Marseille: Forever the first, an amusing reference to the first victory of a French club in the Champions League in 1993.
Director Marta Diaz de Lope Diaz, also co-writer of the film, drew inspiration from her childhood memories. "In the playground, I was the only girl who played football with the boys. I always had this feeling of doing something I shouldn't have, or being in a place that wasn't meant for me." Even though the film's story takes place in 1970, the filmmaker believes it remains relevant today: "How many generations of girls grew up hearing that football wasn't for them?" His film aims to break this stereotype by telling the story of the first to rebel against this idea, paving the way "for all those who followed and all those who will come".
A Spanish selection, world champion
Remember that in 2023, in Sydney, the players of the Spanish national team won their first World Cup against England. The men's selection having won last summer against Argentina, Spain is therefore the title holder in both sexes. On October 26, a Catalan player, Alexia Putellas, was awarded the Women's Golden Ball for the third time, equaling the record established by her compatriot Aitana Bonmati. Out of a total of eight Golden Balls, the Spanish women have won six!
Pioneras' heroine is called Natividad, "nativity" in French. With such a first name, she attended, it goes without saying, a Catholic school. This reserved teenager has a secret passion for football. Her mother, who raises her alone, prefers to confine her to the house where she must take care of her brothers and sisters. Nati – his nickname – plays in secret with the boys in the Villaverde district of Madrid. They accept him into their ranks, but never make passes at him. Nati therefore learns to dribble and score goals relying only on herself.
When Javier Poga – a character inspired by Rafael Muga, first coach of the women's team – decided to form a women's eleven, he did it first of all to create an event and bring the public back into the stands. Before discovering that these young women, from varied backgrounds, have real potential. He even finds that the “great” Nati plays better than his best male striker. With the support of a sports journalist, obliged to write her articles under a male pseudonym to be deemed credible, he decides to bet on the future of women's football. He fought, with sometimes questionable means, to create the first Spanish national team.
A social comedy about emancipation
Forever the First is a social comedy which, through football, deals with the emancipation of women and the injunctions weighing on young people, including boys, in patriarchal societies. A world of shackles persisting in certain countries. We think of the extreme case of Afghanistan where the Taliban have for five years erased women from public spaces, in particular banning them from playing sports.
In the film, women's football is viewed very negatively by the authorities. A manager does not hesitate to claim that it can “affect the ability to procreate”. Older women see it as a perversion. The president of the Football Federation is not against it, but he finds that "it's not very feminine" and wants football to remain simple fun for these ladies. They have no changing rooms, no equipment adapted to their size. It will take a lot of determination and courage for the heroines of the film to face mothers, fathers, big brothers... and all the jokes.
Despite a scenario that is all too predictable, the director of Pioneras shows real tenderness for her characters and knows how to make them endearing. In his gallery of portraits: a hairdresser, a nurse, a student committed against Francoism, a journalist passionate about football, an ambitious and talkative sports promoter, a young boy who doesn't like football, a presumptuous older brother... Their journeys intertwine and end up weaving the material for this little humanist and gently militant film. The very successful “vintage” decors take us back to the atmosphere of Spain in the early 1970s.
This fiction, based on historical facts, incorporates very real archive images. In Spain, it was not until 1981 that the Football Federation recognized its women's national team. She will participate in the next World Cup organized in Brazil in 2027. From 2031, Fifa even announced that "taking into account the remarkable progress made recently by women's football around the world", the number of competing teams would increase from 32 to 48, as for the men's event.
Forever the First invites future champions to tackle any prejudices that may persist.
