The Workers Cup
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | The Workers Cup |
| Publishing year | 2017 |
| length | 92 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Adam Sobel |
| music | Nathan Halpern |
| occupation | |
| |
The Workers Cup is a documentary by Adam Sobel , which celebrated its world premiere on January 19, 2017 as part of the Sundance Film Festival . The film tells of the living and working conditions of African and Asian migrant workers in Qatar , but also of the soccer tournament that is organized for them, the Workers Cup .
action
The film tells about the living and working conditions of African and Asian migrant workers in Qatar that there build the stadiums and facilities for the 2022 FIFA World Cup are needed and which, as every year hosted a football tournament for the workers, which is the Workers Cup calls.
After FIFA selected Qatar to host the 2022 World Cup , the oil-rich country is using its financial resources and starting to build modern stadiums and facilities. Qatar, which at that time only had around 2.5 million inhabitants, had to bring millions of migrant workers to the small country on the Persian Gulf. These came from countries such as India, Kenya, Nepal and Ghana, and hundreds of them were housed in cramped and poorly equipped workers' camps on the outskirts of cities, where they return at night after their often hard working days. The migrant workers try to give their families a better life in their home countries, but the workers are not always satisfied because they are often not paid on time.
Among the workers are the 21-year-old Ghanaian worker Kenneth, who also came to Qatar because he dreamed of becoming a professional footballer, his Kenyan work colleague Paul, who is unsure about dealing with women, the former Nepalese office worker Padam who strives to maintain a long-distance relationship and Umesh, who is from India and has two children, hoping to save enough money from the money earned in faraway Qatar to build a house for his family. When they play soccer with the other guest workers, away from the gleaming soccer stadiums behind their dusty labor camps, they forget, if only temporarily, their disappointment that many of them were deceived by recruiters in their home countries with false promises before signing the employment contracts Lured into the country and now work for half the salaries they were promised.
Soon the Qatari workers' welfare organization will again be organizing the annual football tournament, the Workers Cup , in which teams from local construction companies are brought together and compete against each other for the migrant workers in the huge, partly half-finished stadiums in Doha, which many of them helped to build . The guest workers not only play for the cash prizes, but also for their company and receive the recognition and applause of their colleagues, who cheer them from the audience. However, the tournament is also part of an image campaign. Even though the Workers Cup is organized annually, the promised reforms of the labor law for the guest workers are not carried out, and after the games the workers have to return to their labor camps.
background
The human rights organization Amnesty International reported on November 17, 2013, after an investigation into working conditions in Qatar, of systematic exploitation of guest workers in the construction industry and cases of forced labor . Amnesty submitted a 153-page report about the sometimes shocking conditions on site, whereupon many sports and media representatives called for a stop to the exploitation of migrant workers. It later became known that more than 450 Indians had died on Qatar's World Cup construction sites in 2012 and 2013, other figures spoke of 1,200 Indians and Nepalese who died in the years 2011 to 2013. Other points of criticism were the work without a break at Temperatures of up to 50 ° C, inadequate nutrition, the lack of drinking water, inadequate occupational safety, medical undersupply and violence against workers. In addition, many guest workers had to go begging because they did not receive their wages.
production
Staff, cast and score
The director took Adam Sobel . The American journalist used the football tournament in the title as an excuse to accompany a team from the Gulf Construction Company and to be able to report on the real working conditions that the guest workers found in Qatar.
The Kenyan Paul who can be seen in the film said about his life in Qatar: "I try to hide the life I live here from my friends because they would not understand it. Paul, who does his job for his work in the distant country When the bartender gave up in the Westgate Mall in Kenya's capital Nairobi, Qatar said he was a prisoner.
The score was composed by Nathan Halpern , who lives and works in Brooklyn.
publication
The film celebrated its world premiere on January 19, 2017 as part of the Sundance Film Festival . In June 2017 the film was shown at the Sydney Film Festival . The film was presented at the Zurich Film Festival at the beginning of October 2017 . The film was released in selected American cinemas on June 8, 2018.
reception
Reviews
So far, the film has won over 80 percent of Rotten Tomatoes ' critics .
Variety's Geoff Berkshire says the result is a nuanced, if somewhat malnourished, portrait of the poorest people in the world's richest country.
Awards (selection)
Critics' Choice Documentary Awards 2018
- Nomination for Best Sports Documentary
Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival 2017
- Awarded the McKinnis Sports Documentary Award ( Adam Sobel )
- Nomination as a competition film in the World Cinema Documentary Competition
Web links
- The Workers Cup in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The Workers Cup in the program of the Zurich Film Festival
Individual evidence
- ↑ Criticism of Qatar: Amnesty laments conditions on World Cup construction sites. In: Spiegel Online . November 17, 2013, accessed June 10, 2018 .
- ↑ sid / dpa / pk: Host country: Amnesty shocked by World Cup slave labor in Qatar. In: welt.de . November 18, 2013, accessed October 7, 2018 .
- ↑ http://www.handelsblatt.com/sport/fussball/tausende-tote-auf-wm-bastellen-der-tribut-von-katar/9636274.html
- ↑ Charlie Phillips: The Workers Cup review: if you're building stadiums for Qatar 2022, someone else wins In: The Guardian, January 21, 2017.
- ↑ Tom Finn: He shoots. He scores. Then back to the World Cup laborers' camp In: reuters.com, January 26, 2017.
- ↑ The Nathan Halpern Scoring 'One Percent More Humid' In: filmmusicreporter.com, January 14, 2017.
- ↑ 2017 Sundance Film Festival Printable Film Guide In: sundance.org. Retrieved January 19, 2017 (PDF; 17.8 MB)
- ↑ Programs 2017 In: zff.com. Retrieved September 14, 2017.
- ↑ The Workers Cup In: Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved August 23, 2019.
- ↑ Geoff Berkshire: Sundance Film Review: 'The Workers Cup' In: Variety, Jan. 20, 2017.
- ↑ Kate Erbland: Critics' Choice Documentary Awards Nominees Announced: 'Free Solo', 'Minding the Gap', and 'Wild Wild Country' Lead Nods. In: indiewire.com, October 15, 2018.