“The Beautiful Game,” “Futbol Arte”: It’s watched by more fans and played by more people than any other sport in the world—you need only a pitch, a ball, a net, and 11-to-a-side to play something like a regulation game, and it’s being done with considerably less somewhere every second of every single day—and as such it’s no surprise that football, soccer, or whatever you care to call it has made its impact in motion pictures from all around the world. In anticipation of World Cup fever engulfing the globe, we’ve brought together films—from Jafar Panahi, Wim Wenders, Abbas Kiarostami, and other international auteurs—that consider the poetry-in-motion of the sport as experienced by spectators and players alike.
