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THE CUP Send This Review to a Friend
A charmer that starts slowly and creeps up on you, "The Cup" concerns young Tibetan boys in training at a monastery in exile, located in the foothills of the Himalayas. What is the big challenge of the moment? Not Buddhism but scheming to find the necessary television equipment that will enable them to watch a World Cup soccer match at the monastery. Good-natured humor is mined from the impression that boys will be boys no matter what the environment.
Two boys who escape Chinese-occupied Tibet make their way to the monastery and become led by a brash 14-year-old who has soccer on the brain. The film tracks their ensuing adventures, including the maneuvers to get enough money to rent a satellite dish from an Indian merchant who gouges them. The generation gap between the boys and the somewhat bewildered but tolerant elders in charge is a source of amusement.
This is the first film by Khyentse Norbu, himself a lama, and it is also the first feature-length film from Bhutan. Norbu wrote the script and found his cast, all non-professionals, among members of the Chokling Monastery, where the film was shot. "The Cup" tells a lovely, very human and entertaining story that rises above its modest origins. A Fine Line Features release.
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