On Sunday, as the acupuncturist and accidental film-maker Ranko Tutulugdzija collected his Rising Star award at the Canada International Film Festival in Vancouver, it was the culmination of two unusual, incredible stories.

The tale he tells in his film, Rise & Shine, is the first. A young man, from a family that loves every sport but football and a land that has never embraced the game, sets his heart on the Premier League. With a bit of loose change in his backpack he arrives in England, hunkers down at a friend's parents' house – where he sleeps on a mattress in the attic – and gets a game at a lowly non-league club, on £40 a week. Unable to buy a car, he gets lifts to games in the back of his coach's van where he is cushioned from the jolts and bumps by piles of pants and boxes of brassieres – his coach is an underwear salesman. At the end of his first season, the club goes out of business. He is 24, has no club, no money, and apparently no chance.

Two years later he is playing in front of 65,000 people in the world's most lucrative club game, where he scores and is named man of the match. The following year he fulfils his dream of playing in the Premier League, and another couple of years down the line he's a mainstay for his country at the World Cup.

Jay DeMerit's career path is indeed fit for Hollywood. But no less affecting is the story of how Tutulugdzija brought the career of the former Southall Town, Northwood and Watford centre-back to the silver screen.



The pair met on the football pitches of the University of Chicago 13 years ago. They became friends, and for a while Tutulugdzija slept on DeMerit's floor. "I played midfield and Jay was a defender," says Tutulugdzija. "He was so fearless. That's the only way to describe him. No one could get by him. But nobody was looking at him in college. He wasn't considered a star."

In 2001 DeMerit moved to play with Chicago Fire's development team – a long way further from MLS stardom than it may sound. Tutulugdzija, meanwhile, was diagnosed with Exercise-Induced Compartment Syndrome, a painful condition most often suffered by marathon runners and brought on, as its name implies, by an excess of exercise. One doctor recommended an operation, another said the operation could kill him, so he just played through the pain, trying to prolong his own dreams of a professional career. After graduating he returned to his family home in California and lost touch with DeMerit.

There, his condition worsened. He was diagnosed with Rhabdomyolysis, the break-up of muscle tissue, which often – as it did in this case – leads to kidney failure. Doctors said his legs would need to be amputated, but he had no medical insurance and his family, immigrants from Serbia, didn't have the money to treat him. So he flew to China, where treatment was cheaper and alternative methods were available, and their success allowed him to return to the United States, the situation apparently under control. "They helped me with traditional Chinese medicine for a year and a half, in Nanjing and Beijing," he says. "My legs were out of the danger zone but in 2007, still having problems in other parts of my body, the doctors gave me an MRI scan of my brain using a contrast dye called gadolinium." Gadolinium is generally considered safe, but in rare cases it can cause severe reactions in patients who have suffered from kidney problems. "The next day I felt a strange feeling in my body. My skin started to burn and my bones were aching deep in the marrow. I was told the only way to cure this was through a kidney transplant."

Soon afterwards DeMerit happened to get in touch. "We had lost touch completely. For six years I didn't talk to him at all. That's when his story exploded, and I didn't know anything about it. I was in my own world, just trying to survive. But I found out about what he'd done from a friend, and then he was playing at the Home Depot Centre against Guatemala, and he invited me to the game. After that we linked up in Manhattan Beach and it was just like old times. And that's when, after all these years, I finally told him about what was going on with me. And the first night I saw Jay, when I told him, he said: 'Let's go to the doctor right now. Let's check if I'm a match for you.'"

To the astonishment of doctors, even without a transplant Tutulugdzija's health began to improve. Inspired by his time in China he retrained as an acupuncturist. A couple of years later, a friend suggested that DeMerit's unusual career path might make a good film. The plan took shape, and the three of them – Tutulugdzija, his friend Nick Lewis and DeMerit – each invested $17,000 to start a production company. But even the process of making the film proved dramatic.

"We weren't going to direct it," says Tutulugdzija. "We hired a professional director from London and we had everything planned to go, but a week before we were supposed to come, he had an emergency with his wife's pregnancy and he pulled out. We were trying to find a new director, but it couldn't be put off – in the end we got to England a day before his last home game ever [for Watford], which was really special. We were going to let the experts do it, but when that didn't happen we had a moment in time to make it. We just had to do it without a director. We hired a young cameraman – just out of college, no experience – got on the plane and did the best we could.

"Nick and I, we had no idea what we were doing. You know what, we figured it out along the way. Film is so special because it opens its arms up to anyone who has the passion or the heart. And for me, even though we lacked experience, we had the heart for it."

In England they spoke to the key characters from DeMerit's career, including Kieren Keane, the English-born friend who first suggested that the player try his luck in London; Ray Lewington, now Fulham's first-team coach, who as the Watford manager gave DeMerit his first contract and was interviewed for several hours in the week of last year's Europa League final; and Aidy Boothroyd, who guided the club into the top flight.

"I was so impressed by your people and your country," says Tutulugdzija. "It's no wonder England ruled the world for so long. Ray Lewington was so kind and so humble, even though we caught him a few days before the Europa League final. These people really understand soccer. When I was at college, nobody thought of strategy. In England everyone was so highly knowledgeable. I was like a sponge listening to Aidy Boothroyd. We have so many hours of footage, he's so awesome. The hospitality we received – we were just pretty much nobodies. I really saw how Jay's story happened. I don't think any other country in the world could have provided a stage for what Jay did."

The battles are nearly over. DeMerit's career has flourished, Tutulugdzija's health is much improved, and the film is all but finished, even if it can't be shown in public until about $150,000 (£92,500) is raised to license the snatches of footage of DeMerit in action. "We started off thinking we were just going to enter a few festivals, but then we released the trailer and what we hoped for has come true – that people would see that this isn't just a movie about soccer, but a human story of perseverance, hard work and belief. And for me this project was done with all heart, and with a sense of gratitude that's hard to explain, that Jay was willing to lay down his own life for a friend. That is something that the world doesn't know about Jay, but should. He is more than a soccer player, he is an awesome human."

The trailer for Rise & Shine is here