'Arsenal Eight' plays as an Israeli team in the fourth division of the Dutch Amateur Football Association. (KAVB)

They are at the very bottom of the league.

"Our mother-tongue is Hebrew and our father-tongue is Dutch and we're like children torn between two divorced parents..." Says Shimon Schabracq (50) the initiator of the team and the leaàing character of the film.

Born in Amsterdam to Jewish-Dutch Holocaust survivors, Shimon has immigrated to Israel at the Age of 7, fought 2 wars in Israel and came back to Holland at the age of 28. He's married to a non-Jewish, Indonesian Dutch woman and has 2 children. Shimon's parents' painful past and his own immigration and war experiences have forged a permanent mark on him and his controversial views might not always sound pleasant...

Arsenal's characters are as diverse and as colorful as any botanical garden will have it. The only thing that binds them together is their contradictions of longing for Israel but living in Holland, speaking Dutch but love to speak Hebrew, and of course, their passion for football.

As we get to know Shimon and his friends, a unique story unfolds. A story of seemingly ordinary people whose collective memory consists of generations of wandering, alienation, wars and persecution. Having established themselves well in Holland, yet experiencing identity problems, playing football together has become more, much more than a game. As Beni Amar (38), Arsenal's left-winger says: "When I play football, I forget everything. I only think of the ball and the game. Afterwards I feel relieved. It's one more fine day. It gives me the strength and the courage to go on"...

ARSENAL EIGHT -- FOOTBALL FOR THE SOUL delves into the personal side of the Israeli football players who chose to live in Holland as voluntary exiles, it looks at their emotional needs to run together in the football field and examines their relationship to their adopted country and its people.

It's a documentary full of fun, football and humor. It's about people's migration, about individuals in a foreign land and about the critical similarities and divisions that keep people apart and together.

 
 
Following the broadcast in Israel on Channel 8 this is what the TV critic, Mr. Meir Schnietzer, wrote about the film:
The film "Arsenal-8" which was broadcast last night on channel 8, seems at first as if it is nothing more than a lovely film of Israeli folklore that documents the story of a football team playing in the Dutch amateur league with all its players ex-Israelis who live happily in Holland.

But beyond the almost predictable documentation of the Israeli community life in Holland, Izzy Abrahami and Erga Netz' film is wise enough to point a finger to the bleeding sore that prompted the heroes of the documentary to emigrate from here to west-Europe. All of them remember with no longing the trauma of the army-service. All those sticky stories about the togetherness of the 'Sabres' don't occupy any warm corner in their hearts as far is it concerns Tzahal, the Israeli Army. On the other hand, the camaraderie of carrying the football team, is the one thing that defines their being Israelis. And this is certainly a nice way to determine one's nationality.

Meir Schnietzer, "Television", Ma'ariv, August 16, 1998