
Yves Hinant, Belgium, 2009, 77 minutes Thursday, May 13 | 6:00pm | Pacific Cinémathèque BUY TICKETS NOW: www.ticketturtle.com If you think your job is stressful, you havent seen anything yet. The pre-game preparations of European soccer referees, which variously include throwing up, praying to God and generally being utterly terrified, make evident the demands of their job. The original title of Yves Hinants revelatory new documentary was Kill the Referee, which captures just how high the stakes are in the world of international soccer. These mysterious men with whistles and cards are not just hated, they are loathed, reviled, the subject of death threats, bomb threats and more invective than is humanly possible to withstand. Its little wonder that they approach each game as if it was their very last. From the films opening scene, where Swiss referee Massimo Busacca is captured in the final moments of a match between Greece and Sweden, the level of intensity and attention demanded from the men officiating the play is almost super human. Wild-eyed and sweating bullets, Busacca communicates with his assistants, who are constantly feeding him information through their radio headsets. Bits of their dialogue, punctured by bouts of furious profanity, and a deep animal roar from the packed crowd make explicitly clear the pressures that be. A huge hit when it premiered at the Locarno Film Festival, The Referees was filmed with unprecedented access, capturing the different teams <b>...</b>
DOXA
Yves Hinant
world cup soccer
football
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Vancouver
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