Backstory refers to a character’s life before the story begins. An example from the world of comedy: near the beginning of “Tootsie,” we meet an actor who is so difficult to work with, producers refuse to hire him. And from drama: the early scenes in “Dirty Harry” introduce us to a highly effective cop—feared by the bad guys—who is unpopular with his bosses because of his indifference to bureaucratic niceties. Although taking up little screen time, backstory matters because it launches the process of transforming a stock figure–actor, cop, whatever—into a three-dimensional figure, someone we can root for.

Backstory isn’t just a technique used by Hollywood filmmakers. In the mini-doc “Berlengas World Cup 2018,” the backstory sequence of the boats arriving on the island lets us know that the Portuguese football players aren’t simply enthusiastic athletes. More important, we learn that these are men with passion about their work (fishing),  about the sea, and about each other.

When we come to the heart of the movie—the game—we see immediately that we’re not on the world stage. The playing field on Berlengas, Portugal, isn’t as manicured as the field for the FIFA World Cup. And the two teams—Baleal and Peniche—won’t draw three billion viewers. Yet the contest—in a series dating back to the 1940s—offers just as much humanity and intensity as anything FIFA has to offer. Indeed, this is football (soccer in the U.S.) in a form that closer to the origins of the game than the contests featuring international stars.

Commissioned by Apple, “Berlengas Island Cup 2018” was written, directed, and DP’d by Pedro Patrocinio and André Braz.  The movie was shot on an iPhone using MoondogLabs anamorphic lenses and a Beastgrip Pro rig.

“Berlengas Island Cup 2018” was chosen as the Mobile Movie of the Week by the editors of MobileMovieMaking Magazine.