A sharp, often darkly funny documentary about one of modern football’s most infamous implosions. It works best as a character study of ego, power, and public humiliation, with enough political and cultural context to make the scandal feel bigger than sport.
The Bus: A French Football Mutiny
Where to watch: Netflix
Movie · Documentary · R
2026 · 1h 21m
Director: Jérôme Fritel, Christophe Astruc
Starring: Raymond Domenech, Patrice Evra, William Gallas
Overview
This documentary revisits the French football team's controversial 2010 World Cup and the bus strike that sparked global headlines and national outrage.
Director
Jérôme Fritel, Christophe Astruc
Production
Breath Film, Roger Films
Cast
Raymond Domenech, Patrice Evra, William Gallas, Bacary Sagna, Estelle Denis, François Manardo, Roselyne Bachelot, Sébastien Tarrago, Vincent Duluc, Robert Duverne, David Astorga
Where to watch
Netflix, Netflix Standard with Ads
Curator Review
Verdict
A sharp, often darkly funny documentary about one of modern football’s most infamous implosions. It works best as a character study of ego, power, and public humiliation, with enough political and cultural context to make the scandal feel bigger than sport.
Best for
football fans
viewers interested in sports scandals
audiences who like political or media-inflected documentaries
people drawn to messy, ironic real-life stories
Skip if
you want a straightforward match-by-match sports recap
you dislike abrasive personalities and locker-room chaos
you prefer uplifting underdog stories
you are looking for a purely neutral, procedural documentary
Overview
This film revisits the 2010 French national team mutiny with the kind of grim amusement that only hindsight can provide. Rather than treating the episode as a simple sports failure, it frames the bus strike as a collision of ego, authority, class tension, and national embarrassment. The result is less a football documentary than a public autopsy of a team that stopped functioning in front of the world.
Worth noting
What makes it compelling is how much of the drama still feels absurdly contemporary: media frenzy, institutional dysfunction, and men in power making everything worse. The tone can be biting, even gleefully cruel at times, but that suits a story built on contradiction and humiliation. It is especially effective if you enjoy documentaries that expose the human mess behind the headlines.
Bottom line
It may not satisfy viewers looking for tactical analysis or a clean moral arc. But as a piece of scandal storytelling, it is entertaining, revealing, and hard to look away from. The film’s real strength is that it turns a notorious football collapse into something broader and more revealing about French culture and celebrity failure.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Chris001 (4★) · 387 likes
"la finalement on a un vrai entraineur" en parlant de Roselyne Bachelot comment ne pas pleurer de rire
tinux18 · 301 likes
Va te faire enculer sale fils de pute
yanisfandecine (4★) · 281 likes
aqababe aurait dû couvrir l’événement
Zehq (4★) · 204 likes
le journal intime de domenech = le mein kampf de notre siecle
Mr_Heavy1511 (3.5★) · 188 likes
L'amour que je porte pour Raymond Domenech est passé de 0 à -1.