Alexander's in Chester will host the World Cup on its giant 200" screen from Thursday, June 12, when the competition begins with the opening ceremony and the first game, Brazil v Croatia.

However, as part of the Northgate series of festivals, the World Cup games will be preceded on each of the first five games by a film about one of the countries about to play.

Four of these five films are new releases, two of them premiering at the Amnesty Film Festival in London last (June 6) weekend, and entry to all is free.

The programme begins tonight (Thursday) with Eric Cantona’s documentary Looking for Rio in which he traces the history of football in Rio, the violence between the four clubs there, and why Brazilians believe that they cannot lose at football.

The film starts at 7pm and is followed by the opening ceremony and then the Brazil v Croatia opening game of the tournament.

On Friday the film is Superjews, the overtly ‘Jewish’ chanting of Ajax supporters, topical because the FA have recently banned such language at Tottenham Hotspur.

This film starts at 6.30pm and is followed by Spain v Netherlands.

On Saturday, there is an exhibition of art by children in Gaza taking place in Town Hall Square, with lots of short films about Palestine also being shown there.

In the evening, the exhibition moves to a pop-up gallery in Rufus Court where there will be a screening of Goal Dreams, a film about the attempts of the Palestine team to qualify for the World Cup, despite the bombing of their stadium and the imprisonment of their captain.

In Alexander’s the World Cup runs all evening, featuring the England v Italy match at 11pm.

Sunday 6pm brings The Railroad All Stars, a tale of a group of South American sex workers who form a football team to attract attention to their plight.

This will be followed by the Honduras v France game, and later Argentina v Bosnia.

Finally, Monday, June 16, after the early kick off of Germany v Portugal, Coach Zoran and his African Tigers tells the story of a ‘colourful’ Serbian, no stranger to war, and his attempts to coach the newest football team in the world – South Sudan. It is followed at 11pm by the Ghana v USA match.

Further details are available at northgatefestivals.org.