Now that essential works from smaller countries such as Iran and Taiwan have pulled world cinema away from its Eurocentricity, there's a renewed sense of excitement that vital films can spring from unanticipated sources around the globe. Fernando Vendrell's gentle, lyrical, unpretentious debut feature, Dribbling Fate, is one of the first to emerge from the Cape Verde Islands, a former Portuguese colony off the west coast of Africa. In telling the simple story of a 50-year-old former soccer goalkeeper who missed his chance to play the club leagues in Portugal, it suggests the lingering effects of imperialism on the dreams of the islands' inhabitants. Vendrell, who apprenticed as an assistant director for aging masters Manoel de Oliveira and Raul Ruiz, chooses a languorous pace that's slow but seductive, timed to the unhurried rhythms of its picturesque seaside setting. The inviting landscape and people of Cape Verde create a backdrop that grows more important to the central character as the film progresses. Leading a fine cast of nonprofessional actors, Carlos Germano plays the aging soccer prodigy, now a bartender who listens intently to every radio broadcast of his favorite Portuguese team, Benefica. Though Germano's obsession with the game has taken its toll on his marriage and family, he discovers a local talent (Paulo Miranda) and spends his wife's savings on a ticket to Lisbon, where he can pitch the boy to Benefica and attend the team's championship final. There's little question about what his journey abroad will wind up teaching him, but Dribbling Fate doesn't require big narrative surprises; after all, the story is about a man resigning himself to the inevitable. If the film has a major flaw, it's that Vendrell's ambitions are too modest and familiar, leaving only the lush setting to distinguish it from similar models. But since Dribbling Fate is essentially a love letter to the idyllic beauty of Cape Verde, that's more than enough.