A film
The Cup — Khyentse Norbu, 1999.
Khyentse Norbu's 1999 debut feature is the film that introduced Bhutanese-Tibetan cinema to the international audience. The plot is small and warm — young monks at a Himalayan monastery scheme to find a television set in time to watch the 1998 FIFA World Cup final. Cannes selected it for the Directors' Fortnight. Beneath the comedy is a serious portrait of the monastic life and the slow arrival of the outside world.
Film · Khyentse Norbu (Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche) · 1999 · 1h 33m · Tibetan and Hindi (with English subtitles)
Why we picked it
The Cup is the first feature film by a Tibetan-Bhutanese lama to receive international release. Khyentse Norbu directed it as a way of meeting his international audience on terms they recognised — the comic-drama register, real young monk-actors, the substantial humanity of monastic life. For visitors planning a Vajrayana-Buddhist itinerary, this is the warmest entry-point we know to the texture of monastic life.
Editorial note
Khyentse Norbu is one of the more-distinctive contemporary Bhutanese cultural figures (see [[dzongsar-jamyang-khyentse|the full entry]]). He is a senior lama in the Khyentse lineage, a published author whose 'What Makes You Not a Buddhist' has been widely read internationally (see [[what-makes-you-not-a-buddhist|that entry]]), and a filmmaker who has made several Bhutan-set features. The Cup is his most-accessible work and the best place to start. After this, visitors with deeper interest move to Travellers and Magicians (his next film) and to his more demanding later work — Vara, Hema Hema, and Looking for a Lady with Fangs and a Moustache. The film won the Best Film prize at the 1999 Pusan International Film Festival.
“If only football could solve all our problems.”
— Geko (Orgyen Tobgyal), The Cup (1999)
Where to find it
Bhutan / Coffee Stain Productions (1999) — Cannes Directors' Fortnight
More from Khyentse Norbu (Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dzongsar_Jamyang_Khyentse_Rinpoche
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