The World Cup of Cinema - Bhutan

Travellers and Magicians 

(Screen capture image taken from a Prayer Flag Pictures production/ Distributed by Zeitgeist Films)

The date was June 11th, 2019. The location was Guam, an island territory in the Western Pacific. A football match was played between two teams in which the Guam national football team won 5-0 advancing to the next round of the Asian qualifiers. This match occurred in the nascent stages of what was eventually a 3 year process; one that was impacted by acts of terrorism, months of hysteria over a global pandemic, a volcanic eruption, and geo-political warfare. And that’s before one gets to the typical shithousery that occurs during World Cup qualifying.

The World Cup of Cinema - Wales

Rebecca’s Daughters 

(Screen capture image taken from a co-production between Astralma Erste Filmproduktions and Chris Sievernich)

I don’t know how much of this might be the result of prejudiced English wankers, but in any case I found the distribution of Welsh cinema to be rather poor. Take for instance the 1992 film Hedd Wyn. Paul Turner’s anti-war biopic was the first (and so far only) full length Welsh language film to be nominated for an Oscar. This likely lead Fox Lorber to acquire the US rights and release a VHS copy of the film through Orion Home Video in the mid 1990s. No further release of this film has ever been issued in the US. The fact that a film that could easily be considered a landmark achievement in Welsh cinema has been left to languish in VHS purgatory, should illustrate what I’m up against here. While there are VHS copies of this film in libraries near where I live, currently I’m not willing to haul a VCR and video monitor into a library just to watch a film, … … not yet anyway.

The World Cup of Cinema - Morocco

Mille Mois (A Thousand Months) 

(Screen capture image taken from a co-production between Gloria Films, Agora Films, Entre Chien et Loup, Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen, Radio Télévision Belge Francophone, Soread-2M, and Studio El Orch/ Distributed by Optimum Releasing)

What occurred in my search for Moroccan cinema was pretty much what I had expected to happen for a handful of countries when I first plotted this project. I actually found a fair number of films that I could consider as proper selections, but getting access to any of them proved to be extremely difficult. None of the films that I had on my list appeared to have garnered any sort of distribution to North America. In addition to this, streaming options for all of these films were effectively non-existent. And this was the case for Internet sites spanning the entire legitimacy spectrum. For this particular selection, worldcat.org indicated 8 university libraries within the US that were holding, what I presume were import copies. Unfortunately, none of these libraries where willing to lend out a copy through the ILL system. I grew frustrated enough to actually consider what I view as my final fallback option.

The World Cup of Cinema - Qatar

Dari Qatar 

(Screen capture image taken from a film that was distributed by The Doha Film Institute via YouTube)

Logically if one where to attempt this project, starting with the host country might seem like a natural choice, given that one would already know that they were taking part in the event and that there would be no ‘qualification grief’ associated with the corresponding selection. Unfortunately things didn’t quite work out that way in this particular instance. I have to be honest, Qatar was the most difficult country when it came to finding a decent selection to watch. While I may not have been particularly thorough in my research, based on all the time that I spent at the Doha Film Institute website and elsewhere I currently know of maybe … 3? feature length films that would satisfy my criteria as a Qatari film. And as for accessing any of these films in order to watch them, … HA!

The World Cup of Cinema - Poland

Dług (The Debt) 

(Screen capture image taken from a Studio Filmowe Zebra production/ Distributed by TLA Releasing)

Poland, just like Ghana, earned my wrath by eliminating a country that I had previously written a critique for. Thanks a lot you deplorable bastards! Now that I got that out of my system, let’s proceed.

The World Cup of Cinema - Ghana

Devil in the Detail 

(Screen capture image taken from a Sparrow Productions film/ Distributed by TubiTV)

At this point in the project it would be safe to assume that behind every critique that I write there’s at least 2 or 3 films that I had my eye on, but chose not to watch for a variety of reasons. This is usually the case for countries like Ghana where I lacked a great deal of prior knowledge about their film culture and who I just passively hoped wouldn’t get in. Unfortunately these rotten scoundrels managed to knock out Nigeria. But putting my personal bitterness aside, I don’t think there’s a worse scenario in which to exclude a potential selection, than a case where I find something that really piques my interest but yet is completely inaccessible. While I have vague memories about how I ever came across it to begin with, during my research for Ghana I discovered the film Obonsam Besu which tempted me in a thoroughly inexplicable manner. The trailer for the film can be seen in the first half of this video.

The World Cup of Cinema - Cameroon

Ninah’s Dowry 

(Screen capture image taken from a Fintu Films production/ Distributed by The Roku Channel)

I would like to state for the record that I really don’t like how Africa configures its World Cup qualifiers. I find the process of using two-legged ties to determine all the slots to be far more nerve-racking, especially when compared to the rather placid manner in which other countries qualify through group stage play. I actually felt legitimate anxiety when tracking the CAF scores on my phone, hoping that the countries that got through were the ones that I had already written critiques for. I don’t know why I go through these types of emotions. I should really try to relax more and learn to accept the results that occur with a far more positive attitude.

The World Cup of Cinema - Canada

waydowntown 

(Screen capture image taken from an 842896 Alberta production/ Distributed by Home Vision Entertainment)

What!? How did this happen? When did Canada suddenly become good at soccer? Did they play these matches on ice and use sticks to move the ball aboot? At the time that I’m writing this, not only are Canada atop the standings of the octagonal, but they’re four points clear of both the US and Mexico. Hopefully either FIFA or at least CONCACAF will launch an investigation to figure out how these hosers cheated their way into the World Cup. Perhaps this will happen after they go to Qatar and get exposed for the frauds that they are. But alas, sigh!, they made it in and I should critique one of their films, which honestly shouldn’t be that difficult to do.

The World Cup of Cinema - Ecuador

Qué tan lejos 

(Screen capture image taken from an Ecuador Para Largo production/ Distributed by Venevision International)

And now I arrive at the countries that forced me to do more work than what I had initially thought was necessary. Had I done some deeper research at the beginning of this project I might have discovered that Ecuador managed to qualify for three World Cups in the 21st century, which likely would’ve prodded me to search for some Ecuadorian films to consider. Instead I only considered their 2018 results where they finished 8th in the CONMEBOL qualifiers which led me to think that I didn’t need to worry about them. As a result of this I got caught a bit off guard, which honestly was probably overdue to happen.

The World Cup of Cinema - Netherlands

Amsterdamned 

(Screen capture image taken from a First Floor Features production/ Distributed by Concorde Film)

I think subconsciously, one of my aims for this project was to explore the diversity of film culture that existed on a global scale. I really wanted to expand my notion of what a film is or what a film could be by witnessing a wide variety of different approaches, traditions and techniques. Thus I did not anticipate encountering cinematic elements that I would see over and over again, and yet I have run across a rather fatuous, random commonality that I can’t seem to avoid. Currently I have watched 5 films in this series that feature, at some during the picture, children who hang out on rooftops.

The World Cup of Cinema - Saudi Arabia

Wadjda 

(Screen capture image taken from a co-production between Razor Film Produktion, High Look Group and Rotana Studios/ Distributed by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment)

Despite reports of documentaries that were filmed in the 1970s, the Saudi film industry began in earnest during the 21st century making it possibly the world’s youngest film culture. So while some may refer to this selection as an obvious one, there really wasn’t much to choose from. The country’s first feature films where produced during a time when movie theaters were still forbidden. Advances in modern technology though would ultimately render this ban as futile. The lifting of this restriction came at a time when people were not exactly wholly dependent on a movie theater in order to watch a film.

The World Cup of Cinema - Serbia

Druga Strana Svega (The Other Side of Everything) 

(Screen capture image taken from a co-production between Dribbling Pictures, Survivance and HBO Europe/ Distributed by Icarus Films Home Video)

Serbia earned a special distinction in this series. They were the first country to qualify for the World Cup before I actually sat down and watched one of their films. When doing my initial research for this project there were a few Serbian films that ended up on my radar. However since I didn’t think Serbia would get the automatic berth from their group stage, such films were never at the top of my to do list. After the team’s shock victory against Portugal I did some casual research later that night and found this selection. I must admit that the ease in which I found a film that interested me, that satisfied my selection criteria, and which I could access relatively painlessly was a bit spooky. Perhaps I’ve overestimated how difficult this project would be to complete. I’m not quite sure if I’ve benefited more from sheer luck or from an increasingly globally conscious world, but either way I’ve probably received a modest boost from both.

The World Cup of Cinema - Uruguay

La Vita Útil (A Useful Life) 

(Screen capture image taken from a co-production between Federico Veiroj, MediaPro and Versátil Cinema/ Distributed by FilmRise via TubiTV)

Federico Veiroj’s second feature film was initially introduced to American audiences through the efforts of the Global Film Initiative, which was founded by Susan Weeks Coulter in 2002. I would gather that the main purpose of the initiative was to support and promote the work of filmmakers from around the globe and to make such work available to American audiences, a mission that I would certainly support. For a period of about 10 years it ran a Global Lens program to bring foreign films to US theaters and beyond. La Vita Útil was included as part of its 2011 class of films. This program by all appearances is currently defunct and I’m not quite sure whatever became of the Global Film Initiative. The last Global Lens program that I found was from 2014. This occurred not long after FilmRise acquired the distribution rights for the entire GFI collection. There are Facebook and Twitter accounts for the GFI, but there haven’t been any posts to either since October … … of 2015.

The World Cup of Cinema - Australia

The Fringe Dwellers

note: the following critique may contain images and/or the names of Australian Aboriginal people who are currently deceased.

The World Cup of Cinema - Türkiye

Uzak (Distant) 

(Screen capture image taken from an NBC Ajans production/ Distributed by New Yorker Films)

Often during this project I’ve been torn between my desire to dabble in curious, adventurous cinematic pursuits and the necessity of completing this project in a timely manner, with the latter requiring a bit more discipline and focus than the former. For Türkiye, I’ll lean more towards the objective of completion as I return to the foolproof strategy of revisiting a film that I had previously watched once before. While I certainly enjoyed Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s third feature film enough to want to watch it again, I still wonder how much different my reaction will be the second time around. This becomes an even more intriguing query when there’s a substantial amount of time between viewings. The film itself doesn’t change in the interim, only the viewer of such work. Theoretically I could critique any film once every 10 years and each critique may develop into something completely different. The biggest difference for this visit is that I’m going in with the prior knowledge of the sudden and tragic death of one of its starring performers. I suspect that this may lead me to see the film in a darker, more bittersweet light.

The World Cup of Cinema - Sweden

Aniara 

(Screen capture image taken from a Meta Film Stockholm production/ Distributed by Magnolia Home Entertainment)

My initial selection for Sweden was a film that hadn’t been distributed to the United States and was out of my reach. Well, almost out of my reach. I did find a website that would allow me to watch it, but the thing is you get to a certain point in this project where you have to contemplate how much of an advocate that you want to be for acts that others might find infringing to peoples’ copyrights. And let’s be honest even if I stay within the bounds of the law I live in an absurd world where some people might histrionically flip out over the notion that a person could watch a film on a website. Just think of the horror! I don’t want to reveal what this film is though because I’m holding out hope that someday I may be able to watch it and thus include it in future iterations of this series. Is this manner of thinking foolish? Probably. Trust me, there is a part of my brain that feels I should just resign myself to the notion that at the end of this project I will be left with a sizable list of films that I’ll never be able to watch. Be aware that there is a trace amount of self-flagellating torture involved when doing this.

The World Cup of Cinema - Tunisia

Asfour Stah (Halfaouine: Boy of the Terraces) 

(Screen capture image taken from a co-production between Cinetelefilms, France Media, Scarabee Films and La Sept/ Distributed by Kino On Video)

Before I started this project there were certain countries whose cinema culture I knew absolutely nothing about. While one might reasonably assume that such countries would be difficult to complete, this wasn’t always the case. In regards to Tunisia, Férid Boughedir’s 1990 feature was one of the first films that I considered as a potential selection. I didn’t have any real difficulty confirming the selection criteria for the film, and since a DVD copy was distributed to the US, finding a copy in a local library was relatively painless. When everything unexpectedly falls into place this project could almost be a fun thing to endeavor.

The World Cup of Cinema - Columbia

La Estrategia del Caracol (The Strategy of the Snail) 

(Screen capture image taken from a co-production between Crear TV and Producciones Fotograma)

This film was directed by Sergio Cabrera, whose work I had never seen before, which may have actually prompted me to select it. I think there was a subtle subconscious desire on my part to use this project as an excuse to expand upon my prior cinematic experiences. I think this should be a goal for every cinephile; to watch a film from as many different directors as possible. If I really put forth an effort, there’s no reason I couldn’t reach, … I don’t know, … a thousand different directors?!?, maybe? Of course there would still be issues with access. My desire to watch this film offered an excellent example of how frustrating this project could be at times.

The World Cup of Cinema - Switzerland

Amateur Teens 

(Screen capture image taken from A Film Company production/ Distributed by Synergetic Distribution)

Switzerland proved to be a rather challenging selection to complete. The first complication stemmed from the fact that several different languages are spoken in the country (mainly French, German and Italian) so it’s not uncommon for actors and actresses from other nations to sneak into Swiss cinema. For this country, confirming the ‘theatrical performer’ portion of my checklist was more frustrating than normal. Take for instance the 2010 film Songs of Love and Hate. This film was shot in Switzerland. Its director Katalin Gödrös was born in Switzerland and, based off what I’ve read, has spent a decent portion of her life living there. But when I got to the cast which included Dutch actor Jeroen Willems and a trio of German actresses; Sarah Horvath, Luisa Sappelt and Mira Elisa Goeres, it suddenly dawned on me that this film wouldn’t work. There is a part of me that really hates excluding a film on the basis of such technicalities and yet I know that if I go ahead and select it, I run the risk of having someone complain ‘hey these people are German, not Swiss’, so either way I can’t win.

The World Cup of Cinema - New Zealand

Black Sheep 

(Screen capture image taken from a Live Stock Films production/ Distributed by Dimension Extreme)

New Zealand was one of those countries that I checked off my list just for the sake of having it done. And why not? After all I felt very confident that they would win the Oceania region. Ever since Australia left they’ve been the heavy favorites to win the confederation, which in this case would have left them one goofy win away from furtively slipping into the World Cup. Maybe in a ‘normal’ world I might have waited to see who would win the region first and then possibly who that team would be paired up with in the inter-continental playoff before choosing to write a critique. But given the delays caused by the pandemic, this just didn’t seem like a good idea.

The World Cup of Cinema - Japan

Seven Samurai 

(Screen capture image taken from a Toho Company production/ Distributed by The Criterion Collection)

Japan was another one of those ‘easy’ countries when it came to completing this project. Not only does the country produce a huge amount of films per year, but a good portion of their work is accessible to people living on the other side of the Pacific. Albeit much like the United States, this is a country where there was so much to choose from that I didn’t even know where to begin. Between the anime work of Hayao Miyazaki, Satoshi Kon, and Katsuhiro Otomo, the cult films of Nobuhiko Ôbayashi, the yakuza films of Takeshi Kitano, the sadistic, graphic fare of Takashi Miike, as well as the work of more ‘classic’ auteurs like Yasujirō Ozu and Akira Kurosawa, one doesn’t have to dig too deep into Japanese cinema culture before they’re confronted with an embarrassment of riches. Given how diverse and eclectic its cinema product can be, some may view my selection of Kurosawa’s 1954 masterpiece as a rather unimaginative, conventional pick.

The World Cup of Cinema - United States

Slacker 

(Screen capture image taken from a Detour FilmProduction film)

A funny thing happened halfway through the completion of this project. I suddenly realized that I hadn’t done a film from my own native country yet. I suppose that this was the consequence of initially focusing on the countries that actually qualified for the 2018 tournament. All kidding aside the fact that our ‘soccer’ team missed that tournament didn’t really bother me, and I refuse to get excessively overdramatic about it. I’m not the type of person who places much significance on the outcome of a sporting match. At the end of the day who wins and losses these games are trifling affairs. The men from our team did the best that they could and even though things didn’t go quite the way that they had hoped, I have no reason not to wish them peace and happiness in life.

The World Cup of Cinema - Hungary

Panelkapcsolat (The Prefab People) 

(Screen capture image taken from a Mafilm production/ Distributed by Facets Video)

I had not given much thought before to how weird it is to execute a process whereby football matches played all over the world would dictate the films that I watch. I always felt a bit conflicted about how to deal with countries that existed on the fringe of being good enough to qualify for the World Cup. One approach was to just be patient and see how they do in the qualifying rounds before making any firm decisions. The biggest advantage to this strategy is that it can save a lot of time and unnecessary hassle. For instance, I actually had a selection in mind for Ireland, even though I hadn’t done much research into how I would go about accessing the film. However after Ireland lost an early qualifying match to Luxembourg, I was able to just … casually take this film off my to-do list and not worry about it. Someday I may watch that film, but in the lead up to the publication of these critiques, I didn’t want to waste time on countries that obviously wouldn’t make it.

The World Cup of Cinema - Portugal

John From 

(Screen capture image taken from a co-production between O Som E A Fúria and Shellac Sud/ Distributed by Altered Innocence)

I mentioned this briefly in the introduction for the series and I’ll reiterate it here. Portugal turned out to be one of the more troublesome countries when it came to finding a film, and it’s not something that I really anticipated. I came across numerous titles that I thought could’ve been interesting selections and yet too often I would browse their production details on IMDB only to see that there had been no distribution whatsoever to the US. With online streaming options being rather spotty, I made the drastic decision to forgo all of my prior research in order to employ a far more simple if not brute method. I simply went to a library and investigated all of their Portuguese language films to see what was there. Once I sorted out all the Brazilian films, which comprised a significant majority of this set, only a handful of films that actually originated from Portugal itself remained, which included João Nicolau’s second feature film. And no, this wasn’t my initial idea for a Portuguese film. While the following categories may not be completely mutually exclusive, often in this series I don’t watch the films that I want to, but rather the ones that I can.

The World Cup of Cinema - Nigeria

Last Flight to Abuja 

(Screen capture image taken from an Obi Emelonye film/ Distributed by IbakaTV via YouTube)

Given all the research that I’ve conducted so far in this project, Nigeria might have one the strangest film cultures of any country that I’ve ever delved into. According to most sources at one point it was producing more films than any other country in the world, apart from India, and yet some have pointed out that the industry was noted more for its quantity than its quality. Thus no matter how much I learned about films like Living in Bondage, The Wedding Party, or The Figurine, or became aware of directors like Tunde Kelani, Amaka Igwe, or Kenneth Gyang, at the end of the day I felt as if all I had ever really accomplished was to secure a very shallow, cursory knowledge of Nigerian cinema. I can’t escape the notion that beyond this introductory level of self-learning is a sub-culture so vast and so immense that I could easily get lost and never find my way out.

The World Cup of Cinema - Iran

Baran 

(Screen capture image taken from a co-production between Majid Majidi and Fouad Nahas/ Distributed by Buena Vista Home Entertainment)

I'll admit that this choice was a true shot in the dark. Normally I would spend hours online looking for films from a certain country and upon finding potential selections spend additional time researching their production details in order to confirm that they satisfy my inclusion criteria. However in late summer of 2020 I was finally able to enter public libraries again and on one such visit had a passing thought to browse the international film DVDs in order to find a selection for Iran. Browsing through the titles for both the ‘Persian’ and “Farsi’ sections I came across Majid Majidi’s Baran. It wasn’t until I took this DVD home when I conducted my research and realized that I could potentially critique the film for this series. I mean I would have watched the film anyway.

The World Cup of Cinema - Brazil

Um Trem para as Estrelas (Subway to the Stars) 

(Screen capture image taken from a co-production between CDK Productions and Chrysalide Film)

I'll admit that this was not my initial choice for a Brazilian film. My first choice was a film that was essentially inaccessible without the help of local libraries, all of whom were closed at the time that I wanted to watch it. I suppose I could have waited for them to reopen, but I didn’t know how long it would be before that happened. Focusing on other countries would have been difficult since all the qualification matches for this silly event had been postponed as well. And let’s be honest regardless of how this crazy shit was going to play out, I knew that Brazil would eventually qualify, so it didn’t make any sense to further delay checking them off my list. Should I be criticized for not watching a Brazilian film earlier in this project? Perhaps, but at the time I honestly didn’t think it would matter that much. Going forward I’m going to have to hone my skill at anticipating global catastrophes which cause the fabric of society to fall apart at the seams. 

The World Cup of Cinema - Spain

Mientras Duermes (Sleep Tight) 

(Screen capture image taken from a co-production between Mientras Duermes and Castelao Pictures/ Distributed by TubiTV)

This was yet another film that I had watched before. I don’t know if I should be criticized for selecting so many films that I had already seen, but ultimately I had to write well over 30 of these things and it was probably best to save some of my energy towards research for, … ‘later’ entries in this series. MPI Media Group secured the US rights and gave the film a limited theatrical run in October of 2012. Three months later MPI released the film on DVD and Blu-Ray through its horror film subsidiary Dark Sky Films. The film can also be streamed on a number of different platforms including Amazon Prime, Tubi, Vudu, Kanopy and more.

The World Cup of Cinema - Germany

Das Leben der Anderen (The Lives of Others) 

(Screen capture image taken from a Wiedemann & Berg Filmproduktion film/ Distributed by Buena Vista International)

Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s debut feature was another film that I had watched before. Sony Pictures Classics picked up the US distribution for this film in 2007 and gave it a 7 month run in theaters. After the conclusion of this run, Sony released the film on DVD and Blue-Ray. Finding a DVD copy wasn’t difficult. For the Sony release, a copy was being held at 30 public libraries within a 20 mile radius of where I live. And that was out of a total of 1566 holdings worldwide that were listed on worldcat.org. The film can also be watched on Amazon Prime, or rented out from Facets. If you’re inclined to simply purchase the DVD, that’s also fairly easy to do. I saw copies of this being sold on eBay for as little as two bucks.

The World Cup of Cinema - Senegal

Touki Bouki (Journey of the Hyena) 

(Screen capture image taken from a Cinegrit production/ Distributed by The Criterion Channel)

Thanks to the World Cinema Foundation, Djibril Diop Mambéty’s 1973 feature was restored in 2008 and later included in the first edition of Martin Scorsese’s World Cinema Project released by the Criterion Collection in 2013. Prior to this restoration it had previously been released by Kino On Video in 2005. I honestly couldn’t find much information on any possible ‘theatrical activity’ for the film. I’ll assume that apart from the usual suspects of film festivals and special one-off showings, it’s never been shown in US theaters. Despite the best intentions of Criterion, Scorsese, and others this is still a Senegalese film from the early 1970s and thus it’s not a particularly easy DVD to find. Any copies that one can find online won’t come cheap. I did run across one website that was selling a copy of the Kino On Video release for $40, and given how rare this particular edition is, that’s not a bad price. Criterion are still selling the Blue-Ray/DVD combo box set of the World Cinema Project for $100 on their website, and when you consider that it would include this film and 5 others, it’s not a bad deal. Granted cheaper options may be found on sites like Amazon, plus one can also rent it out from Facets. Criterion will also allow you to stream the film online at their website, with access costing at the very least $11/month.

The World Cup of Cinema - Argentina

Tan de repente (Suddenly) 

(Screen capture image taken from a co-production between Lita Stantic Productions and Nylon Cine/ Distributed by Empire Pictures)

When I first devised the concept for this project there where certain films that immediately came to mind as possible selections for certain countries. When it came to Argentina, Diego Lerman’s 2002 feature was the first film that I thought about. Part of the reason for this was due to the fact that I had actually checked this film out from a library once before and had liked it enough to consider watching it again. Thus, this will represent the first time in the series where I chose to revisit a film before writing a critique of it.

The World Cup of Cinema - Denmark

Festen (The Celebration) 

(Screen capture image taken from a Nimbus Film production/ Distributed by Universal Studios Home Entertainment)

I first learned about this film from the documentary Side By Side, which I once watched due to pure chance. It’s not hard to understand why Thomas Vinterberg’s 1998 feature was referenced in a movie that delved into the film-making process, given its status as the first film to be released under the much heralded Danish movement ‘Dogme 95’. Not long after it was produced the film had a decent theatrical run in the United States which lasted for about 5 months. Universal acquired the home media rights in the US and released the film on DVD in 2004. I suspect that due to the film’s slight historical significance, it was not difficult to find a DVD copy a decade and a half later.

The World Cup of Cinema - South Korea

Miss Baek 

(Screen capture image taken from a Bae Pictures production/ Distributed by Little Big Pictures via Rakuten Viki)

To my knowledge, Ji-won Lee’s only directorial effort to date has never appeared in American theaters apart from festivals and one-off showings. Although this is a fairly recent selection having initially premiered in its native South Korea in October of 2018. At the time that I initially wrote this Japan was the other only country where it garnered a wide theatrical release and I doubt that any other country will follow suit. But then again who needs movie theaters when you have the Internet? The film is currently available on Amazon Prime, Tubi, Plex and the Rakuten Viki site. There may be other sites, but the Internet is too vast for me to list them all. Plus ‘less legitimate’ sources for online streaming tend to come and go erratically, so if you wish to watch this elsewhere you’re on your own. Back when I first searched for a way to watch this film, the Viki site was allowing people to watch this title completely free without having to create an account to login with. This is what I would prefer when it comes to online streaming; access that’s very direct, simple and hassle-free, albeit with regards to the Viki site it did come with one major caveat; advertisements.

The World Cup of Cinema - Mexico

Voy a Explotar (I’m Gonna Explode) 

(Screen capture image taken from a co-production between Fondo de Inversión y Estimulos al Cine (FIDECINE) and Canana Films/ Distributed by MPI Home Video)

Even from the perspective of eclectic American cinephiles Gerardo Naranjo’s 2008 feature is not well known. IFC Films secured the rights for theatrical distribution in the US, but apart from a few festivals and possible one-off showings it’s never appeared in American theaters. Granted IFC Films over the years has acquired quite a strange and diverse collection of films, many of which are not marketed very intensely. When I first started to write this critique, I went to the IFC Films Wikipedia page where it listed all of its releases, and this film didn’t even have a link to its own dedicated page, which subtly conveyed its level of obscurity.

The World Cup of Cinema - Costa Rica

Viaje 

(Screen capture image taken from a Temporal Films production/ Distributed by Mosaico Films via Amazon Prime)

Once you proceed a certain distance into a project like this you have to consider the limits and parameters of how far you’re willing to go in order to achieve completion. For instance I didn’t really want to travel outside of my native Illinois in order to do this, and in a world where the Internet exists I shouldn’t have to. I also wanted to minimize the amount of money that I would need to spend in order to access these films. Achieving this latter aim would require spending a great deal of time in libraries, looking up movies on worldcat.org, researching various distribution companies and film institutes, and poking around a sundry of dodgy websites looking for any accessible online and download possibilities that I could find. I accepted that I would have to do all of this. What I didn’t expect was any measure of dependence on commercial digital providers like Netflix, Hulu or Amazon Prime. It’s not that I don’t like some of these companies, nor the fact that I’m a bit of a cheapskate (well to be fair, that’s part of the reason), but rather because these services mainly offer access to films from countries that already have a good portion of their cinematic output available on DVD and thus it wouldn’t be necessary to rely on them. Countries like Costa Rica made me think otherwise.

The World Cup of Cinema - England

Life is Sweet 

(Screen capture image taken from a Channel Four Television Company production/ Distributed by The Criterion Collection)

My first exposure to this film was a cable-television broadcast in the early 1990s. While I was initially intrigued with what I saw, I can’t remember if I actually watched the entire film. In all likelihood I caught this broadcast at the sudden end to a frantic session of channel surfing. I must admit that at times television has been an important resource for broadening my cinematic tastes and knowledge, even though the medium does suffer from some disadvantages in this aim. First, films have to navigate certain cultural and censorship filters in order to appear on TV, and even then they are probably being broadcast as part of a corporate marketing strategy. TV is also filled to the brim with countless channels and operates on a schedule of its own choosing, rendering the practice of finding a film that you don’t yet know that you like until you start watching it, as both limited and impossible to foresee. And that’s to say nothing about the presence of pure chance in such a process. With channel surfing, it is the brief glimpses of a film that have to grab your attention. It requires fortuitous timing to work.

The World Cup of Cinema - Croatia

Šuma Summarum (Forest Creatures) 

(Screen capture image taken from a co-production between Kinorama and Propeler Film)

One of my aims in writing these intros is offer some back story on a film’s journey as an economic commodity, which I base solely on the research that I conduct. I never had any expectation that this would necessarily be an easy thing to accomplish. Here’s what I know so far about Ivan-Goran Vitez’s 2010 feature. According to Imdb.com, the film was shown at a Croatian film festival in the summer of 2010. According to the website cineuropa.org¹ it had a release date of Nov. 19th later that same year. Whether or not it got released in theaters beyond Croatia, I couldn’t tell you. Among the 2 user reviews on IMDB, one of them tells the tale of a film that fell out of favor with the some of their financiers, who then pulled the funding for the project. This apparently left the film orphaned before it approached the theatrical film market, relegating it to a fate where it was just another film that entered and briefly exited the collective cultural landscape with little fanfare or impact.

The World Cup of Cinema - Greece

Attenberg 

(Screen capture image taken from a Haos Film production/ Distributed by Strand Releasing)

I should probably start this critique with a disclaimer. I ended up writing about films from more countries than just the ones that qualified for the World Cup. About halfway through this project I decided to just publish everything that I wrote. It didn’t make sense to let anything go to waste, so occasionally you may encounter some ‘outcasts’ within this series.

As for Athina Rachel Tsangari’s second feature film, it first appeared in US theaters -while on the festival circuit back in 2011, and was apparently intriguing enough to get a distribution deal with Strand Releasing. Strand gave the film a limited theatrical run in the US during the spring of 2012, which would last about 3 months and which never got shown on more than 2 screens. Later that summer, Strand released a DVD version of the film, which effectively made the film accessible to Americans who don’t live anywhere close to New York City, because that’s how things work in my country.

The World Cup of Cinema - France

À Nos Amours 

(Screen capture image taken from a co-production between Gaumont, Les Films du Livradois and France 3/ Distributed by The Criterion Collection)

To my knowledge this film was never officially distributed to theaters in the United States. A couple of film festivals in the US selected it to be screened back in the 1980s, not long after the film was produced, but apart from this the only avenue to see this film in America was to explore the independent and/or art-house cinema route. The film was never even available on DVD in the US until 2006 when Criterion acquired the distribution rights and released a 2-disc set which featured numerous extras. Given how many Criterion titles that I see among the stacks of my local libraries I didn’t think it would be too hard to find. I perhaps too easily overlooked the fact that the film waited over 20 years to get the Criterion treatment.

The World Cup of Cinema - Belgium

Le Fils (The Son) 

(Screen capture image taken from a co-production between Les Films Du Fleuve, Archipel 35, and Radio Télévision Belge Francophone / Distributed by New Yorker Films)

Within the United States, the Dardenne brothers’ first directorial effort of the 21st century was initially shown in New York City theaters back in January of 2003 and to its credit stayed there for roughly a year. Granted it never played in more than 3 theaters at a time and its likely that no American screenings have occurred outside of NYC apart from film festivals and one-off film society screenings. According to the DVD rental operation Facets (which is based in Chicago), this is considered one of their rare titles. It’s a distinction that I suspect the film has garnered as a result of securing US distribution through New Yorker Films long before this distributor started to incur financial difficulties. New Yorker Films went bankrupt in 2009 and ceased all business operations, only to be revived from its coma a year later when Aladdin Distribution purchased the company and its assets. Currently New Yorker Films seems to exist in a semi-dormant state.

The World Cup of Cinema - Introduction

The concept for this project was very simple. My aim was to watch and critique a film from every country that is competing in this year’s World Cup of association football. While conceptually this project may seem simple, in regards to its’ execution it was anything but. A great deal of thought, research and planning was required to complete this project and trust me finishing it was far more difficult than starting it. Probably the first issue that I had to confront was determining what would make a film identifiable with a certain country. For this project, I preferred to watch a film that was directed by a person (or persons) from the featured country, so that the film that I select would represent the vision and ambition of a native citizen. I also preferred a film that was shot in the featured country, so that I could see the country itself while watching the film. I also desired films were the cast of performers were largely comprised from the featured country, so that its’ own acting talent was put on display. With this last qualification I wasn’t so strict as to require the entire cast to be from a given country, because honestly this would probably make the project nearly impossible to pull off. Granted I still preferred films where the leads and prominent characters were predominately played by performers from the featured country.

Beyond this though there were still a number of potential issues that I had to deal with at the onset of this project. Below is a list of such conundrums, in the order in which they occurred: