L'arbitro

CinemaSerfJun 2026

3.5

If only he hadn't had the lentils! They were the cause of the banishment of a football referee (Luca Pusceddu) to a backwater in the Northern league of Sardinia where a match resembles more a Sergio Leone movie than a Cup Final. His first game, on a dusty pitch with a baying crowd, starts off well enough but after his first yellow card is dished out it descends into something lawless and violent, with the distinct possibility of a linesman getting lynched and you certainly wouldn't want to be a wandering sheep. The photography and the soundtrack are really quite entertaining here as the players pose - half as if they were on a police wanted poster and half as if they were on the cover of Vogue, and the comedic antics of both players and fans alike do raise a smile (from the relative safety of my couch several thousand miles away). When he finally does get round to blowing for full-time, it might have been better for all to just count their limbs and digits rather than the number of goals scored. This is good fun, there's virtually no dialogue and it's well worth quarter of an hour.