Orgyen Tobgyal, Janyang Lodro
This charming wisp of a comedy, the first feature film made in Bhutan, may do for Buddhist monks what the pious efforts of Richard Gere, Brad Pitt in Seven Years in Tibet and director Martin Scorsese with Kundun didn't: namely, make them engaging and likable onscreen. Based on a true story and cast with actual monks, the leisurely paced Cup shows how residents of a remote Tibetan monastery, go loopy over soccer during the 1998 World Cup. They get to watch it only after a teenage monk (Tobgyal), who has seen earlier matches at a bar he snuck into, campaigns ceaselessly to convince an elderly abbot to import a TV and satellite dish so that everyone can sit around in saffron robes watching men in shorts kick a ball. (G)
Bottom Line: Soccer moms, make way for soccer monks
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