The Last Taboo

The feature-length documentary DAS LETZTE TABU allows Thomas Hitzlsperger and those who have broken this very taboo to tell their very personal stories. Like the British professional footballer Justin Fashanu (*1961 in London; † 1998 in London), who first broke this taboo in 1990 and paid for it with his life. His story is told by his niece Amal. Marcus Urban, on the other hand, was about to make the leap into the Bundesliga as a teenager and, in deciding to come out, also made a decision against his big dream. The stories of US professional Collin Martin and British player-coach Matt Morton, on the other hand, suggest that a lived normality is not far away.

Their biographies could not be more different, but their personal experiences and conflicts between self-denial and liberation all sound very similar. They leave question marks and demand respect for the courage of professional footballers. When Per Mertesacker, referee Babak Rafati and Rolf Töpperwien also report on the great pressure in the "business of soccer" or Tatjana Eggeling gives insights into her conversations with players who have not come out, the film also increasingly raises the question of why the topic is so hushed up, especially in soccer? Does homosexuality simply not correspond to the hyper-masculine image of the soccer hero? Is there a fear that sand could get into the gears of the high-performance marketing machine that is soccer? Or is it perhaps the case that players and fans today are already much further along than those who sit at the levers of this machine? THE LAST TABO gets to the bottom of these questions and not only tells the story of the footballers, but also sheds light on a society in transition. A society that was perhaps not always as tolerant as it believed itself to be.