Phörpa - Of Monks and Soccer

Saw a Burmese film, “The Cup” or “The Phörpa”. It’s the first movie produced in Burma. The movie is in Tibetan language. And I don’t know that language. I have seen many other language movies. By the term others means languages I don’t understand. But the only condition is there has to be subtitles. These movies had subtitles but as I am currently staying in Amsterdam hence the subtitles are in Dutch. But I was not going to waste my 2.5 Euros of rent. So went ahead and watched it.

The movie is of Tibetan Monks who live in exile in India. There’s no political statement here. The movie is of a little monk, Orgyen who is crazy about soccer. The Soccer world cup is on and Orgyen along with some other monks even sneak out to watch a few Soccer world cup matches. He is caught with the disciplinarian of the monastery, Geko (played by Orgyen real-life father). The story starts when a new boy joins the monastery. The boy is home sick and he has a pocket watch with him, which is given by his mother. When the monks cannot watch the world cup final, they convince the head to rent a satellite dish. When they are short of money, they pawn the new kid’s watch to make for the remaining amount.

The new kid gets depressed and this makes the soccer-crazy Orgyen exchange his favorite soccer shoes for the watch. The story ends when Orgyen gets the watch back to the new kid.

I could not understand many dialogues, but I guess it does not make any difference. If the subtitles had been in English, then I would have understood more of the movie and the story.

The child playing Orgyen is good. He shows the natural charm and innocence of a 13 year old. He plays the soccer crazy fan to perfection.

The movie is slow sometimes there are no words spoken for a while. The monks don’t speak that much I think. The only mention found to Tibet is when some monks are writing on the wall of the monastery. Geko comes and rubs that off maybe showing the fear they have for the government.

The film has no dramatic story. Just a group of monks and their monastery. A young monk who has a passion for soccer and by the end of the movie turns from careless and self-centered to an understanding person.

The fact that none of these actors are regular actors and this is the director’s first movie and also that the movie is made on a shoe-string budget makes it more impressive.

When the credits start rolling at the start, we hear a nice song. The same song is played at the end. It has the Buddhist touch. More about the film here .

I would rate it 7 on the scale of 10