Directed by Corneliu Porumboiu • 2014 • Romania
Starring Adrian Porumboiu, Corneliu Porumboiu
Cinema doesn’t get much more minimalist—or more casually inventive—than this unique experimental documentary from Corneliu Porumboiu, which consists solely of a videotape of a snowy 1988 Bucharest soccer game accompanied by the commentary of the director and his father, who refereed the match. The setup is deceptively simple, but the behind-the-scenes circumstances were certainly not: the game was a showdown between one team managed by the Romanian army and another by the secret police, with corruption and threats against Porumboiu senior lending the match a surprising political significance. The verbal back-and-forth between father and son offers by turns penetrating and puckish insight not just into the on-field play but a complex historical moment.
Up Next in 21st Century Cinema
-
Marx Can Wait
Directed by Marco Bellocchio • 2021 • Italy
Starring Marco Bellocchio, Alberto Bellocchio, Pier Giorgio Bellocchio1968 was the year Camillo died. Nearly fifty years after the death of his twin brother at the age of twenty-nine, acclaimed director Marco Bellocchio (FISTS IN THE POCKET) gathers h...
-
Radiograph of a Family
Directed by Firouzeh Khosrovani • 2020 • Norway, Iran
“Mother married a photo of Father,” says director Firouzeh Khosrovani in the opening of this deeply personal documentary. She’s not speaking metaphorically. Her mother Tayi literally married a portrait of Hossein in Tehran; he was in Switzerl...
-
Spettacolo
Directed by Jeff Malmberg and Chris Shellen • 2017 • United States
Once upon a time, villagers in a small town in Tuscany came up with a remarkable way to confront their issues: they turned their lives into a play. Every summer, their piazza became a stage and residents of all ages played a part...
