Cup Final

With Moshe Ivgi and Mohammed Bakri

A powerful anti-war film by the acclaimed Israeli director Eran Riklis (The Syrian Bride, Lemon Tree). When Cohen, an Israeli reservist soldier, gets tickets to the World Cup Final in Barcelona he is ecstatic. But the year is 1982 and when Israel invades Lebanon he is called up for military service. And if this is not bad enough he is taken hostage by an eight man PLO squad fighting the Israelis as they march through Lebanon. Their plan is to get Cohen back to Beirut where they hope to trade him for PLO prisoners. The men discover that they all support the Italian football team and this immediately unites them with a bond that conflicts with the fact that they are at war. In Cup Final, Riklis  powerfully demonstrates his directing skills and candid eye for detail whilst using the metaphor of football to explore the human connections between these long term enemies. JI