While football is very much the driving force of Sarah Imsand’s engaging documentary Kevine and Fortune, at its tender and warm-hearted core is a friendship that is driven by mutual support, faith and determination – as well as a love of the beautiful game.
Two young women from Cameroon, Kevine and Fortune are the best of friends on and off the football field, both harbouring the dream of playing in the professional leagues of Europe, and even being selected for the Cameroon national team. Despite the many hardships facing them—challenging and dusty playing fields; demanding families and friends who don’t always support them; half-empty stadiums; a lack of equipment; their exhausting day jobs—the pair are always there to support each other.
Kevine does not know her father, was raised by her grandmother and moved to the capital Yaoundé to try and play for the city team. When she met Fortune, who was younger than her, the pair formed a deep friendship.
She says she finds comfort on the football pitch, adding that “football chose me,” and admits she is there playing “because of her (Fortune),” describing her as an “angel that God sent me.” Fortune gains confidence from her older friend’s ongoing support, and her unwavering commitment to the game touches her father, though her parents never ever come to watch her play.
Kevine is a striker, while Fortune plays in midfield, and though the pair both train as hard as each other, it is Kevine – and her goals – who attracts the most attention. Sharing a house as well as a committed training programme, they settle into a routine, but when Kevine is recruited to play for French team Nantes their lives are turned upside down.
The weather may be somewhat colder; her teammates are mostly blonde white girls with ponytails and she has to start playing on grass rather than dusty soil, but she is still doing what she loves. She regularly Facetimes with Fortune – who is still busy juggling training with demanding work – and admits it will be the “happiest day of her life” when Fortune come to France…
Kevine and Fortune is an engagingly breezy and tender film, and while modest in scope it succeeds in presenting a lovely portrait of two best friends supporting each other as they struggle to reach the top level of women’s football. Shot with a sense of energy and warmth, the two women make for memorable characters.
Switzerland, 2025, 61 mins
Dir/scr: Sarah Imsand
Production: Autre Terre
Producers: Irene Muñoz Martín
Cinematography: Sylvain Marco Froidevaux
Editor: Olivia Frey
Music: Frank Williams, Stéphne Cochet, Bachir Sanogo
With: Kevine Ossol, Fortune Mbitounou
