It’s week two of Rialto’s Double Exposure series, where we play complementary films from the same genre on Wednesdays and Thursdays, and it provides an opportunity for English football fans to relive Italia 90, and all cricket fans to relive the pace and fury of the West Indies cricket side at the peak of their powers.

One Night in Turin (Wednesday 11^th July, 8.30pm) is directed by Emmy nominated James Erskine and based on All Played Out, a book by Pete Davies about England’s campaign at the 1990 FIFA World Cup. With newly discovered match footage, including close ups of the player’s faces during the epic semi-final against West Germany, Erskine takes us through England’s gallant effort to go from “donkeys” to heroes.

Watching the semi-final may still be heartbreaking and bring a tear to the eye of English fans, but the film celebrates the rousing occasion it was for the nation and how important it was for English football - fans flooded back into the stadiums, footballers turned professional, and men discovered it was OK to cry in public.

On Thursday, director Stevan Riley’s (Blue Blood) fabulous documentary Fire in Babylon tells with great humour and insight from those involved the story of the rise of the West Indian cricket team during the 70s and 80s.

It’s an astonishing sporting story with a political edge that begins in the 60s when the West Indian cricketers were known as great entertainers but were seldom winners. After losing a particularly brutal series in Australia where they were beaten up by the fury of Thomson and Lillee the captain, Clive Lloyd, returned home and began searching for athletes able to bowl with the same pace and deadly intensity they had experienced in Australia.

And he found them. Known as the “four horsemen of the apocalypse”, Colin Croft (Guyana), Michael Holding (Jamaica), Andy Roberts (Antigua) and Joel Garner (Barbados) helped turn the team into perhaps the greatest cricket dynasty ever – they didn’t lose a series for another 15 years.  

My final pick for the week is wonderfully gentle coming of age story Terri, produced by the team behind Half Nelson and Blue Valentine. Directed by filmmaker Azazel Jacobs (son of avant-garde filmmaker Ken Jacobs) Terri is a gentle, subtle and humorous portrayal of the cruelty of high school and adolescent angst from a real misfit’s point of view.

Abandoned by his parents, over weight Terri’s lives with and looks after his elderly Uncle James, who suffers from dementia, and reluctantly attends high school (wearing pajamas because they’re comfortable) where he’s harassed by students and teachers alike. After a series of “tardys” he becomes a special project for his well-meaning vice-principal Mr. Fitzgerald (John C. Reilly), and the two develop a relationship with interesting consequences.

Have a good week,

Enjoy.