Highlighting human resilience and the primacy of intimate relationships ORDINARY GODS examines what it takes to thrive not just in the world’s most beloved sport, but in life itself. Shot in eight different countries over the course of three years, this film offers a compassionate observation of the lives of six young professional soccer players as they struggle with injury, homesickness, and the pressure of being a rising talent on the international stage.
Corentin Tolisso - Olympique Lyonnais
Director Pascui Rivas (Steve Kennedy/Noozhawk photo)
“I have always been sensitive to ordinary people in ordinary circumstances – painting their daily human experiences with the hope of shining some light along the way. When crafting this film, I would repeatedly remind my team that the story should be approached as if our subjects were carpenters, butchers, bank tellers or what-have-you; in that their professional skills would not be dictating their story. It was their common humanity we were unearthing, and their universal truths would surface through them first as people, and second as football players.”
Pascui Rivas - Ordinary Gods
“If the merit of the sports film were to be measured only by its capacity to forsake the many hackneyed stations of the genre, then Pascui Rivas’s magisterial documentary, Ordinary Gods, would surely deserve its place in the pantheon. Rivas, though, is hardly content to upend conventions for the sake of it. Its sights set elsewhere entirely, the film proffers something like a biographical analysis of the political economy of international soccer, in which players serve as both alienated labor and abstract commodities. But there’s nothing abstract about the six young players at the center of this project. Prodigious talents all, their interest for Rivas lies not in what is presumably godly about them, but instead in what is wholly ordinary about their struggles to navigate the extraordinary circumstances into which their talent has thrust them. That Ordinary Gods never shrinks from the supremely mundane, altogether human dimensions of those struggles is perhaps the truest testament to its greatness.”
G.D.Cohen,Ph.D.
(UCLA/LA Film Forum/ Festival of Inappropriation)
Alhassane Sylla - Diambars
Director Pascui Rivas, with Ricky Restrepo (Estados Alterados) & Martin Gore (Depeche Mode) attend the world premiere of “Ordinary Gods,” at the 2019 Santa Barbara International Film Festival.
Co-Writer Arbi Pedrossian, Composer Adam Peters & Writer-Director Pascui Rivas at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival Q&A. (Photo by @ClovisIV)
Composer Adam Peters at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival Q&A. (Photo by @ClovisIV)
Writer-Director Pascui Rivas & Co-Writer Arbi Pedrossian at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival Q&A.
Writer-Director Pascui Rivas at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival Q&A. (Photo by @ClovisIV)
Professor Viviane Mahieux (UCI) introduces “Ordinary Gods” and Guest Speaker Pascui Rivas.
University of California, Irvine (UCI)
McCormick Theatre
Event moderated by Professors Jacobo Sefamí (Spanish) and Winston James (History).
UCI Illuminations: the Chancellor’s Arts and Culture Initiative
Film and Media Studies
Latin American Studies Center
Spanish and Portuguese
Audience Reactions at the 2020 Shanghai International Film Festival
“Very exciting, I have never seen a similar film. Players are also human beings. They have to face a lot of difficulties. In addition to the psychological, emotional, family relationships, opportunities, etc. that ordinary people will encounter, there are also language and cultural differences that are unique to competition, alone, competitive, injuries, and clubs. The impact of turbulence and so on. Burke couldn’t play the game and watched the lake view from the balcony. Tolisso’s father told him the three principles of victory. Sali’s sister supported her to play football. Zobnin, Mamana’s wife and children, Guruziaga The chat with my mother, etc., are all impressive and touching. The soundtrack of this film is very good, worthy of the art of football.”
“Returned to the cinema after many days. It's really an excellent sports documentary, touching in silence. Sometimes our so-called "Football is higher than life and death" may be too absolute, but football is indeed a part of many people's lives. They sacrificed for this, and grew up as a result, so they have a splendid life.”
“It's really beautiful...”