'Mexico 86' is Diego Luna's love letter to 'the beautiful game'

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In 1986, when Mexico became the first country to ever host the FIFA World Cup a second time, actor and director Diego Luna was only 6 years old.The year before, his hometown of Mexico City had been ravaged by a massive earthquake.

That the World Cup happened at all in a nation recovering from such destruction seemed miraculous to a young Luna.“It felt as though it wouldn’t happen.It was impossible given the magnitude of the disaster,” Luna, now 46, recalls in Spanish during a recent video interview.

“And then when it did happen, you could witness what a balm it was for the people of Mexico City to host the opening ceremony, to welcome so many people from around the globe, and to receive such an outpouring of affection.”“Mexico even had a song that said, ‘For now, at least, we have the Friendship Trophy.’ Sadly, that was the only trophy we got.And the only trophy we have ever won in fútbol,” Luna adds with a smirk.Now, in Gabriel Ripstein’s acidly humorous film “Mexico 86,” out on Netflix starting Friday, Luna plays a fictional man in a partially true story about the ins and outs of how the country defeated more powerful adversaries and surmounted the chaos of the time to host the event successfully.Luna’s passion for soccer, he says, was born during that fateful World Cup at home, where Argentina earned its second title by the “hand” of Diego Maradona.

“My uncle took me to see a match.He had won two tickets in a raffle at his job,” Luna says.

“Back then, the people who attended the World Cup were the same people who went to fútbol games regularly.”Luna worries that the exorbitant ticket prices for the upcoming World Cup (hosted across Mexico, the U.S., and Canada) will prevent everyday fútbol fans from attending.“I don’t know who will be able to afford these tickets, but it’s obvious that the people who go to watch fútbol every w...