Biographical football drama starring David Kross and Freya Mavor. Towards the end of the Second World War, German paratrooper Bert Trautmann is captured and held in a Lancashire PoW camp. However, when he shows a knack for football, Bert is given leave to play in local games, later choosing to stay in England after the War. When he signs on as a goalie for Manchester City, it's a decision that will take him all the way to the 1956 FA Cup Final.
Bert Trautmann famously kept goal for 17 minutes with a broken neck during the 1956 FA Cup Final. But this engaging if slightly soapy biopic isn't really a sports movie; it's essentially a decent, old-fashioned love story set against an extraordinary backdrop of top-tier football and postwar anger and intolerance. Captured in Germany near the end of wartime hostilities and imprisoned in a Lancashire PoW camp, Bert (David Kross) nevertheless manages to catch the eye of both a local grocer's girl (Freya Mavor) and a talent scout for Manchester City. But Bert's signing as City's new goalie outrages the club's many Jewish fans, who understandably have little love for Germans. The Keeper is a great story of love in adversity and is handsomely told. While it may resort to melodramatics in its climax, the attractive leads and a convincing central romance still make it a winner.
| role | name |
|---|---|
| Bert Trautmann | David Kross |
| Margaret Friar | Freya Mavor |
| Jack Friar | John Henshaw |
| Roberts, St Helens manager | Dave Johns |
| Sergeant Smythe | Harry Melling |
| Bill Twist | Michael Socha |
| Man City president | Julian Sands |
| Grandma Sarah | Barbara Young |
| Betsy Walters | Chloe Harris |
| Man City manager | Gary Lewis |
| Clarice Friar | Dervla Kirwan |
| role | name |
|---|---|
| Director | Marcus H Rosenmüller |
