Saipan (2026)

For those with no interest in football, Saipan might be a tricky sell. But filmmakers Glenn Layburn and Lisa and Barros D'Sa prove you don't need to have such curiosity in the sport itself to find Saipan both fascinating and often compelling. 'The Saipan Incident' has its own Wikipedia page, which describes it as a 'public quarrel' between the then Republic of Ireland manager Mick McCarthy, and captain of the Irish national team, Roy Keane. Even those who don't give two hoots about football will probably have heard of the latter. You also might assume that you can't possibly hang a feature film on such an occurrence, and to an extent you'd be right. Saipan is slight, and perhaps ultimately incidental, but especially for those who remember it well and/or had a vested interest in it, Layburn and D'Sa's film proves to be quite the trip down memory lane. The film begins in late 2001, with the Irish team making plans for their trip to the World Cup Finals in Korea and Japan the following summer, assuming they overcome a spirited Iran side in the play-offs who they've already beaten 2-0 at home in the first leg. Keane (Éanna Hardwicke) is injured for the second leg, and can't travel to Tehran with the squad, so watches the game at home with his wife- for a time anyway, before retreating to the garden to avoid the stress. Iran win the game 1-0, and despite the Republic winning 2-1 on aggregate and qualifying, Keane takes umbridge with some of the post match comments from McCarthy (Steve Coogan). Both Hardwicke and Coogan are brilliant. Hardwicke especially is superb; nailing Keane's calm demeanour and matter of fact comments as he strives for the highest standards, set by his own club Manchester United and manager Sir Alex Ferguson. Whilst the Republic of Ireland squad isn't close to the quality of the team Keane is used to playing in, this 2002 Ireland team is far better than anyone gave them credit for- and Keane knows it. More on that later. So the team jet out to Saipan, their base before travelling to Japan for the start of the tournament. And it's here that everything unfurls. Keane, used to the highest standards and self respect of United is appalled at the hotel, the shocking training facilities, the sub-standard catering, and- most embarrassingly- a complete lack of footballs for the squad to train with. He voices his frustrations to McCarthy, and, after initially threatening to leave before backing down, things come to the fore during a team meeting after a newspaper releases a story in which Keane publicly criticises some of his teammates and admits he doesn't respect McCarthy. What follows is explosive, and Hardwicke delivers his monologue with incredible precision- you simply can't look away. Niall Quinn, who was present in the room at the time, described Keane's tirade in his autobiography as "a 10-minute oration [against Mick McCarthy] ...[that] was clinical, fierce, earth-shattering to the person on the end of it and it ultimately caused a huge controversy in Irish society." Hardwick's depiction fully backs up Quinn's statement, and although only the people who were there will perhaps ever know the full extent of this 'quarrel', this is undoubtedly the closest we'll ever get to experiencing it. When you look back, or indeed if you remember it well from the time (I was 11 and was devastated over the whole affair, Roy Keane being my favourite footballer of all time) you probably drew your own conclusions. For me, Keane's complaints were entirely justified. After the Republic crashed out to Spain on penalties in the last sixteen, they received a hero's welcome from thousands at the Phoenix Park in Dublin. Losing in such a fashion against one of the world's best footballing nations after qualifying from a group (undefeated) containing Germany, Cameroon, and Saudi Arabia was seen as a wonderful achievement from a plucky little nation and, to some extent that's true. Many believed that with Keane the Republic wouldn't have got any further anyway. They were a hair's breath from scoring the golden goal in extra time against Spain, and during that extra period were by far the better team. If they'd nicked it then, or on penalties, they would have faced South Korea in the quarter finals- a perfectly winnable game for a squad that contained Shay Given, Steve Staunton, Damien Duff, Matt Holland, Robbie Keane and Niall Quinn to name just a few. This was a good side, and with Keane I personally have no doubt they could have made the semi finals. Which is a ridiculous sentence to many I'm sure, but that in itself is the point- and why Keane, in my opinion, was right to question the aims and ceiling that the FAI (Football Association of Ireland) had placed on its own national team. For Glenn Layburn and Lisa and Barros D'Sa to produce something this entertaining (and for people like me, still devastating) proves just how good they are. The performances of course make the film, and even though this is arguably incidental and won't be for everyone, Saipan is a rip-roaring and constantly entertaining piece of film making that highlights a bizarre historical episode that will mean far more to some than others. 7.9/10