The Workers Cup

The Workers Cup is one of very few films where a director has gained access to migrant workers in a Gulf country. This is a captivating documentary about migrant workers from several Asian and African countries building the stadiums for the World Cup in football, which will be held in Qatar in 2022. The construction companies decide to arrange a world cup for the workers, with each company having their own team. We are given insight into the lives of the workers who have left their families and now are trying to raise enough money for the people back home. Even though the overall message is gloomy and the conditions the workers live under are horrible, the film still manages to conjure up some humour and hope. The combination makes The Workers Cup an entertaining and insightful film.

Adam Sobel is an American director who has worked as a journalist in the Middle East for many years delivering news for The Guardian and CNN. In 2012, he directed a series about the first Saudi Arabian woman to reach the top of Mount Everest. He has spent the last five years in Qatar, and The Workers Cup is his feature film debut.

Read the review of the documentary in The Guardian here.

Panel discussion: "Should we arrange the World Cup in football in a slave state?"

Qatar is arranging the World Cup in football in 2022. How bad are the conditions for the workers, why does Qatar wish to arrange the WC and is Qatar a slave state that should loose their rights to the championship?

After the screening of The Workers Cup, Sunday 2nd of April in Vika 2, we invite you to a panel conversation. Buy tickets to the screening here.