Recensioni de* critic*

The opening 20 minutes are slow, but matters picks up with the appearance of Orgyen. His single minded efforts to secure a screen on which to watch the cup final, along with his relaxed interpretation of the monastery's rules, breathe life into the story.

[The Cup is] an immensely likeable and engaging work, filled with genuine humour, and in which the universal themes - the conflict between ancient traditions and modernization, the value of any human endeavour - emerge naturally from the straightforward storyline.

Norbu's great achievement is having made [the film] at all. With only a brief apprenticeship as Bertolucci's technical advisor on Little Buddha and no film school training, he makes Scorsese's Kundun look like fluff.

[Norbu] has crafted a foreign film that feels particularly Western in both its style and tone... While never dull, The Cup is a leisurely, quiet film, rife with staid, sometimes ponderous moments reflecting the seriousness of their situation in exile.

[The Cup] has a distinctly Western feel in its timing and character development; it's not an inaccessible exercise in impenetrable mysteries, but a delightful demonstration of how spirituality can coexist quite happily with an intense desire for France to defeat Brazil.

"The Cup" has a quiet political urgency, as well as a luminous air of religious conviction. It is also a very funny movie, alive with a sense of absurdity and human foible.

[Khyentse Norbu] has created a wonderful gem that takes the teenpic into totally uncharted territory... Beautifully observed and exquisitely played, [The Cup] is one to treasure.

[The Cup's] narrative is deceptively simple. On the face of it, this is a charming but rather whimsical tale about the monks' battle to watch the World Cup final... However, in its own oblique way the film touches on some deeper issues than which team is going to win.

“The Cup” is a largely charming, simple and exceedingly small picture... For many Western viewers used to holier-than-thou portraits of Buddhist life such as “Kundun,” [the film] will serve as a refreshing introduction to the more human, looser side of the religion and its practitioners.