Featuring
Joe Edley
Matt Graham
Marlon Hill
Joel Sherman

This fascinating film documentary takes a sideways look at the world of competitive Scrabble. And although it has the potential to be another Christopher Guest-style mockumentary, it's serious stuff. It's especially serious for the participants, who spend all their days practising and preparing for tournaments - the prize money for which (around $25,000) hardly compensates for them not having incomes, social lives etc. Hilarious, tragic and riveting.

Astonishingly, there is a dedicated community of people for whom Hasbro's innocuous board game is more than a domestic nicety - it is an obsession. They devote years of their lives to mental and physical preparation and travel the country, some full-time, competing in cut-throat tournaments. The dictionary is studied with religious devotion, each obscure word another weapon for the ultimate battle. For some, the game keeps them teetering on the safe side of sanity. For others, it has pushed them just over. Some scrape by on the meagre winnings alone.

However, in another corner of the Scrabble universe - New York City's Washington Square Park - you'll find a ragtag bunch oblivious to anything besides the games at hand - restaurateurs, grizzled veterans, the seemingly homeless all obsessing about words with a Q but no U: QAT, QAID, QINTAR...

Word Wars delves into both of these worlds, focusing on four of the game's highest-ranked players (also featured in Stefan Fatsis' best-selling book, Word Freak), as they advance from heated competition in neighbourhood parks and clubs to highly organised regional and national tournaments, culminating in the 2002 National Championship in San Diego, where the top prize is $25,000 and is marked by an appearance on the Today Show. You might not want to be one of these 'word warriors', but you will definitely be drawn into their journey.