THE CUP

As demonstrated by a high-ranking lama himself, Tibetan Buddhists may meditate, pray, and chant most of the day, but they have a great passion for soccer?playing it, watching it, anticipating the games. Against the feverish setting of the 1998 World Cup soccer tournament in France, two young Tibetan refugees arrive at a monastery/boarding school in exile in India. Its atmosphere of serene contemplation is somewhat disrupted by soccer fever, the chief instigator being a young student, the soccer enthusiast Orgyen. Prevented from seeing the Cup finals on TV in a nearby village, Orgyen sets out to rent a TV set for the monastery, an endeavor that becomes a test of solidarity, resourcefulness, and friendship for the students, while the head of the monastery contemplates the challenges of teaching Buddhism in a rapidly changing world.