Cinema Boston's World Cup of Film

 Cinema Boston’s World Cup of Film

Hello and welcome to Cinema Boston. I am your host David, and today’s episode is the first of at least two episodes (not sure if we’ll need a 3rd!) to crown the winner of Cinema Boston’s World Cup of Film!

If you’re a regular here and watch under our non-FIFA approved name, you know this is our 2nd Cinematic World Cup episode!

The first one was E22 of S1, and we based that one on a country's historical cinematic “body of work.”

The final four teams in that tournament were England, Japan, France, and Germany (not bad soccer teams either!).

Japan and France met in the final, and France was victorious, so you know that was on the up and up since I root against France in everything, even history.

For THIS  World Cup of Film, we will not be going with a country's cinematic body of work; these matchups will be based on the most recent film I watched from that country, and that film ALONE!

So it’ll be “what have you done for me lately” which has the ability to change since I haven’t stopped watching films while I’m watching all the soccer.

The United States film for this tournament was decided just yesterday, and by the time the knockout round comes around, the US will undoubtedly be represented by another film.

The same is true for England since I watch a lot of films from the UK, and you never know what other countries may be affected by this rule.

For this project I needed to rely on the Cinema Boston archives to research the most recent film I had screened from each country.

The oldest one in this tournament was 2010.

There are two countries from which I have NEVER seen a film so, sadly, they were eliminated before even getting here for the tournament. 

Today we’re just going to present the Group Stage of the tournament and it will mimic the soccer tournament.

There are 12 groups. The TOP TWO countries in all 12 of those groups will go through to the knockout round along with the BEST 3rd place countries in 8 of the 12 groups.

Our second episode in this series will feature the knockout round and our film bracket will mirror how the soccer bracket is set up which is kind of complicated (the winner of Group F plays the 2nd place team in Group C, J’s winner plays, H’s 2nd, and so on). 

It’s called the knockout round for a reason, and all countries losing films next time will be out of the tournament for good.

Today’s winners live to see another match!

Here we go!

Cinema Boston’s World Cup of Film: The Group Stage!

Cinema Boston’s World Cup of Film: Group Stage

Group A

1) Czech Republic Spaceman (2024) 👍 Adam Sandler and an alien spider become friends in space

2) South Africa Yesterday (2004) 👍 ON! HIV+ mother’s goal is to live long enough to see her daughter go to school

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3) South Korea Wall to Wall (2025) New apartment with mysterious noises & neighbors

4) Mexico The Big Cube (1968) 💣 Psychedelic nonsense with Lana Turner

Group B

1) Switzerland Sew Torn (2024) 👍 A seamstress makes that age old movie mistake of picking up that briefcase of money at a crime scene

2) Canada Perfectly a Strangeness (2024) 👍 ON! Short about 3 donkeys wandering around an abandoned astronomical observatory

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3) Bosnia and Herzegovina Quo Vadis, Aida? (2020) Very high rankings, but I didn’t enjoy the story

4) Qatar Coffee-Shop (2012) I have zero memory of watching this, so…

Group C - GROUP OF DEATH!!

1) Brazil The Secret Agent (2025) 👍 4ON! In 1977 Brazil, a technology expert is forced into hiding

2) Scotland Dog Soldiers (UK: 2002) 👍 Scottish werewolves - that’s all you need to know for now

3) Haiti When the Drum is Beating (2011) 👍 Music doc about a 20 member band who has been making music for 62 years

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4) Morocco Le Grande Voyage (2004) 👍 Dad & son road trip from France to Mecca

Group D

1) United States Raw Deal (1948) 👍 Film noir with a guy taking the rap for a guy who then double crosses him

2) Paraguay Landfill Harmonic (2015) 👍 Music doc about the Recycled Orchestra who makes instruments out of recycled trash 

3) Australia Thrash (2026) Shark movie with some very questionable marine science

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4) Turkey Do Not Disturb (2023) Unemployed waiter gets a night shift job in a hotel and weirdness ensues 

Group E

1) Ecuador Maria Full of Grace (2004) ON! Story of a pregnant teenage drug mule 

2) Germany Brick (2025) Another creepy apt. Building movie - this one is suddenly surrounded by a mysterious brick wall

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3) Ivory Coast Black and White in Color (1976) Lost French colonists during WWI decide to attack Germany 

4) Curacao NO RECORD OF ANY MOVIE FROM CURACAO

Group F

1) Netherlands Amsterdamned  (1988) 👍 Serial killer working the canals of Amsterdam 

2) Tunisia The Voice of Hind Rajab (2025) 👍ON! Docudrama about a 6 year old girl’s calls for help pleading for rescue while under IDF fire

3) Sweden Trouble (2024) 👍 Actioner with a wrongfully accused man being mistaken for a pilot

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4) Japan Youth in Fury (1960) New Wave film about a young man flirting with extremism

Group G

1) Egypt The Square (2013) 👍 ON! Satire about a controversial art exhibit

2) Iran Our Uniform (2023) 👍 ON! Animated short about a young girl and her school uniform

3) New Zealand The Quiet Earth (1985) 👍 Dystopian sci-fi about a scientist alone in the world

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4) Belgium Beautiful Men (2023) ON! Animated short about 3 bald brothers getting hair transplants in Istanbul

Group H

1) Saudi Arabia Alkhallat+ (2022) 👍 Anthology film about social deception and trickery

2) Uruguay Blanes Esquina Muller (2020) 👍 A man moves in with his new girlfriend and is then visited by his future self warning him about her

3) Cape Verde Cabralista (2011) 👍 Documentary about political activist Amilcar Cabral

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4) Spain Close Your Eyes (2023) Interesting premise of an actor disappearing during the filming of a movie

Group I

1) Norway Sentimental Value (2025) 👍         OW! International Feature Film about family, movies, and art

2) France All Boys Are Called Patrick (1959) 👍     21 minutes of Godard w/two college girls getting hit on by the same guy on the same day

3) Senegal Sembene! (2015) 👍             Documentary about African freedom fighter Ousmane Sembene whose weapons were his stories

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4) Iraq Ahlaam (2006) Takes place during Shock and Awe in 2013 Baghdad - in an asylum

Group J

1) Algeria Days of Glory (2006) 👍             Four North African men enlist in the French army during WWII

2) Argentina Argentina, 1985 (2022) 👍 ON!  about lawyers taking on the countries’ military dictatorship

3) Jordan Theeb (2014) 👍                     Coming of age story of a young Bedouin boy during WWI

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4) Austria Benny’s Video (1992) A 14-year-old boy obsessed with violent films makes one of his own

Group K - GROUP OF DEATH!!

1) Colombia Bad Lucky Goat (2017) 👍             Two incompatible teen siblings need to fix things when they accidentally kill a bearded goat with their father’s truck

2) Portugal Ice Merchants (2022)  👍                     ON! Animated short about a man and his son parachuting off a cliff every day to sell the ice they produce

3) Democratic Republic of Congo Benda Bilili! (2010) 👍 Another music doc, this one about paraplegic street musicians

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4) Uzbekistan The Desert of Forbidden Art (2010) 👍 Excellent documentary about a man who rescues over 40,000 forbidden works of art to create a museum in the desert

Group L

1) England A Night to Remember (1958) 👍      The Titanic story as experienced by surviving crew & passengers - 39 yrs. before Cameron

2) Croatia The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent (2024)         ON! short where a passenger train is stopped by paramilitary forces during an ethnic cleansing operation

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3) Ghana Kukurantumi Road to Accra (1983)             Comedy about a bus driver who plots a marriage between one of his daughters and a prosperous businessman

4) Panama NO RECORD OF ANY MOVIE FROM PANAMA

Well, that is a wrap from here at Cinema Boston as we conclude the Group Stage of our World Cup of Film.

We hope you’re with us as we continue this tournament with our Knockout Stage episode!

Or the Best & Worst of June, whichever comes first.

Until then, take care.