The Workers Cup

All Equal?
Subtitles
Director: Adam Sobel | Countries of production: United Kingdom | Year: 2017 | Length: 89 min
Language: English, Arabic, Hindi, Malayalam, Nepali with English subtitles | Age: 12+ years

Screened as part of TOAFF17

Their names are Paul, Samuel, Padam or Umesh. By day they join the ranks of the 1.6 million migrant workers toiling away in slavery-like conditions to build Qatar’s 2020 World Cup infrastructure. By night they compete in a workers’ football tournament, playing in the very stadiums that will one day host the world’s greatest players.

They come from Kenya, Ghana, Nepal, India or Bangladesh; in search of employment, they have all uprooted themselves from their families and communities to provide expendable labour in one of the world’s wealthiest nations. As their individual stories emerge, they speak longingly of freedom, home and their hopes for the future, in a film that forces us to question how we ever let the “Beautiful Game” get so very ugly.

…brave and engrossing
The Guardian

…captured with an understated elegance that lingers in the mind
Variety

Sundance, Official selection
Sheffield Doc Fest, Official selection

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