Directed by Yves Hinant, Eric Cardo, Lehericey Delphine Club, QFT, Belfast, 77 min

SWISS REFEREE Massimo Busacca is under pressure. Greece are playing Sweden and decisions must be made and quickly. We’re not watching the ball, but garbled and shouted exchanges between Busacca and his assistants over the radio. Swearing is audible on more than one occasion.

Busacca checks and double- checks before showing the yellow card, then chews out a panicked fourth official: “It’s not my problem. Shut up.” Nobody is more relived than Busacca to hear the final whistle, though it brings only a new batch of complaints and complainants. “We are not gods,” the beleaguered official explains: “we make mistakes.”

The blackest of all men in black strike back with their very own punch-the-air sports documentary; it’s about time, too. Who would be a top-flight referee? Watching Belgian film-maker Yves Hinant’s fascinating delve into the machinations of adjudication at Euro 08, it can be difficult to believe that we’re not viewing crowd responses to paedophiles or tax collectors.

Made with the blessing of Michel Platini and unprecedented Uefa co-operation, The Refereespaints a startling picture of a profession that invites a steady stream of death threats, not just against the men concerned, but also their families and, occasionally, their unfortunate namesakes.

Back at home, a contingent of officials’ wives share pizza and girlie chitchat in front of the football. (“Aren’t the blue kits nice? Much nicer than the last ones.”) A grave silence descends at the hint of a controversial call.

They’re right to be worried. A last-minute decision by English ref Howard Webb is seen to provoke the ire of an entire country. The Polish prime minister declares he “wants to kill” Webb. The referee’s proud family – his beaming dad blows every whistle vicariously from the stands – are assigned police protection after a rash of threats appear online and elsewhere. A bomb warning is called in before the next kick-off.

Hinant’s intimate, free-flowing Ref-Cam ultimately recreates the sensation of being under siege. The flip-flop effect forces the viewer to consider referees “as people too” and the ugly, inflamed passions attached to the beautiful game.

When Bill Shankly made his famous estimation of football’s worth, he could not have envisaged how many idiots would one day have e-mail.