Programmed December 2022

The Beautiful Game: International Football Films

Soccer, er, football fans rejoice: just in time for the World Cup, this champion lineup of films celebrates the world’s most popular sport. Spanning pitches from Europe and Asia to Africa and the Middle East, these eclectic tales go well beyond the standard sports-movie clichés of adversity and triumph, crossing and subverting genres to examine the intersection of sport and culture. Stories of women who risk everything to participate ( Offside , Freedom Fields ), Buddhist monks who defy tradition in the name of fandom ( The Cup ), and one man’s obsessive quest to revolutionize the sport ( Infinite Football ) illustrate the power and worldwide impact of a phenomenon that is truly more than a game.