Al doilea joc
Corneliu Porumboiu
Romania | 2014 | 97 min
Language : Romanian
Subtitles : French, English
A deceptively simple set-up: the director and his father watch a 1988 football match which the father refereed, their commentary accompanying the original television images in real time. A Bucharest derby between the country’s leading teams, Dinamo and Steaua, taking place in heavy snow, one year before the revolution that toppled Ceaușescu.
Both unfold on a rectangle, both last 90 minutes—one by rule, the other by convention. As any cinephile and football fan knows, the affinities between a match and a feature film are not only dramatic but also formal. Porumboiu demonstrates this with a film that reproduces a very personal match in its entirety, where, moreover, the snowy pitch appears as white as a cinema screen. On this candid canvas, the contrast emphasises the black-clad figure who is this time the star of the show: not the 22 players, too many for any screenwriter, but the referee, the filmmaker’s own father.
In his fourth feature and first documentary—which will find its perfect sequel in 2018’s Infinite Football—Porumboiu performs a minimalist and revealing gesture. The full replay of the match is accompanied, as ever, by the commentary of spectators: himself and his father. But here, image and sound are out of sync by no less than 25 years, during which the world has changed. But instead of making the whole thing incomprehensible, here the deliberate accident finally allows the images to speak, with a clarity they never possessed before.
Sergio Fant
In his fourth feature and first documentary—which will find its perfect sequel in 2018’s Infinite Football—Porumboiu performs a minimalist and revealing gesture. The full replay of the match is accompanied, as ever, by the commentary of spectators: himself and his father. But here, image and sound are out of sync by no less than 25 years, during which the world has changed. But instead of making the whole thing incomprehensible, here the deliberate accident finally allows the images to speak, with a clarity they never possessed before.
Sergio Fant
The Whistlers, 2019
Infinite Football, 2018
The Treasure, 2015
The Second Game, 2014
When Evening Falls on Bucharest or Metabolism, 2013
Police, Adjective, 2009
12:08 East of Bucharest, 2006
Liviu’s Dream, 2004
A Trip to the City, 2003
Telephone Number Temporarily Suspended, 2002
Gone with the Wine, 2002
Love … Story, 2001
Graffiti, 2000
Infinite Football, 2018
The Treasure, 2015
The Second Game, 2014
When Evening Falls on Bucharest or Metabolism, 2013
Police, Adjective, 2009
12:08 East of Bucharest, 2006
Liviu’s Dream, 2004
A Trip to the City, 2003
Telephone Number Temporarily Suspended, 2002
Gone with the Wine, 2002
Love … Story, 2001
Graffiti, 2000
Screenings and tickets
Friday 4 April 2025 20:30
Capitole Leone, Nyon
Trailer
Editing
Claudiu Doaga
Sound
Sebastian ZsemlyeDana Bunescu
Production
Marcela Ursu
