Subjects: African Studies, Race Power and Privilege, Labor Issues
With unprecedented access to FIFA’s 2022 World Cup stadium construction sites and labour camps in Qatar, The Workers Cup follows one group of men from among the 1.6 million migrant workers preparing for the world’s largest sporting event. In the shadows of the controversial building sites, the men enthusiastically train to compete in a football tournament of their own: The Workers Cup. Exposing long work hours for scant salaries, limited freedom of movement, and harsh living conditions in isolated labour camps, this documentary explores universal themes of ambition, aspiration, sport, and masculinity, as the protagonists wrangle hope, meaning, and opportunity out of their extremely precarious circumstances
Official Selection of the 2017 Sundance Film Festival
Hot Springs Documentary Fes=val: Best Sports Documentary Hawai’i European Cinema: Best Feature Documentary Mosaic Intl. South Asian Film Fes=val (MISAFF): Best Feature Documentary
“Insightful and moving, this film shows the inherent unfairness of young men from the world’s poorest countries essentially giving up their lives and leaving their families to build vanity projects in the world’s richest countries.”—Nicholas McGeehan, former researcher, Middle East and North Africa Division, Human Rights Watch
About the filmmakers
Adam is a filmmaker based in Chicago after spending the past 5 years in Qatar. He's produced and directed projects in 15 countries and counting, working across cultures and continents to tell character-driven stories that are rich with intimacy, dignity, and humor.
He's made TV and journalism for The Guardian, BBC, CNN, and others - as well as corporate and commercial work for a host of clients. In 2013, Adam spent two months at Mt. Everest base camp directing a doc series about Arabs climbing to the top of the world.
Adam enjoys creating documentary and narrative work in Chicago and further afield, and is always interested in collaborating.