Upon its release, the film participated in the Berlin Film Festival and the Valencia Film Festival.
Plot
A young Israeli soldier, Cohen, is kidnapped by a group of Palestinian fighters who hold him as a hostage during the conflict. The 1982 FIFA World Cup happens to be on during the invasion, and their mutual love of association football, and in particular the Italy national football team, helps break down the barriers of nationalism and the historical baggage that the two bring. A kind of alliance is forged between the two men. Their relationship heads for a tragic ending as the Italian team, along with the goal scoring Paolo Rossi, make their march toward winning the 1982 FIFA World Cup Final.
Reception
Writing in The Washington Post, Hal Hinson called Cup Final "a powerful film, and yet one of the most unassuming great movies ever made". Hanson comments on the relationship between the Cohen and Ziad (the Palestinian commander) as "beautifully mismatched" and that the film's central idea that the men who fight wars would "otherwise be hanging over each other's backyard fence as true friends" was stirringly presented.[2]Stephen Holden, in The New York Times, focuses on the similarity between Ziad and Cohen's loyalties to their team (Italy) and their equally fervent soldierly loyalties to Palestine and Israel. Holden writes that, while the film is sometimes "ham-fisted" in its eagerness to make that point, it succeeds in its depictions of warfare, the media, and in the work of the two main actors, Moshe Ivgi. who plays Cohen, the kidnapped Israeli soldier, and Muhamad Bacri, who plays Ziad, the PLO commander.[3]
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