Federer: Twelve Final Days

Available on Amazon Prime

After forensically analysing the life and times of Ayrton Senna, Amy Winehouse, and Diego Maradona, Asif Kapadia turns his attention to tennis legend Roger Federer and his final playing days. Federer: Twelve Final Days is co-directed with Joe Sabia, best known for his work on Vogue’s ‘73 Questions’ series, whose invitation by Federer to record his retirement announcement gave the film its origins. Subsequently, it is decidedly different from Kapadia’s other work, which is laudable for its forensic and unflinching documentation of its subject’s lives.

Given the fact that Federer is still alive and maintains an almost spotless public image, this is unsurprisingly a far more regulated affair, the purpose of which is to do little more than tie a neat bow on the last chapter of the sportsman’s illustrious career. Fans of the Swiss and the sport as a whole will no doubt be delighted by the opportunity to glimpse at the inner sanctum of such a storied figure, especially when it reunites him with former opponents such as Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal. 

Nonetheless, the film fails to offer little analysis of Federer’s game or psyche beyond that offered by his peers, who understandably elect to wax lyrical. As a PR exercise, this works well enough but casual observers will mostly leave Federer: Twelve Final Days none the wiser about its topic, which feels like a missed opportunity given Kapadia’s other body of work.