Red Army takes over Cannes: Soviet hockey hits big screen in US-made documentary
‘Red Army’, a US-made documentary about Soviet hockey stars, revealing their sporting sacrifices and their struggle against the system, has become the icing on the cake in the special screenings program at Cannes Film Festival.
The film by director, Gabe Polsky, focuses on the story of CSKA
Moscow hockey club, which belonged to the Defense Ministry of the
USSR and therefore was known as the “Red Army” in the West.
“The world’s most dominant sports team,” as the authors
of the movie call it, provided backbone for the unstoppable
Soviet national squad that won seven Olympic gold medals and 19
World Championships.
Polsky, the son of Russian immigrants, who played hockey at
university, says his two-year project was aimed at finding out
“how and why they (Soviet players) were so good.”
But the director, previously, told Hockley News website that
“it’s not just a hockey movie. It’s a very deep and emotional
story that gets into the Russian soul.”
Legendary USSR and Russia defender, Vyacheslav Fetisov, who is
the storyteller in the documentary, speaks frankly about the
sacrifices he and his teammates had to make in order to “create a
masterpiece on the ice.”
“These guys were isolated in Soviet society. For 11 months of
the year, they lived together outside Moscow. They weren’t really
allowed to leave,” Polsky – famous for co-directing ‘The
Motel Life’ together with brother, Adam Polsky – said. “It
was like the Beatles, they knew each other so well. But they paid
a huge price.”
Fetisov was instrumental in breaking the iron curtain that
prevented Soviet stars from playing for US and Canadian teams in
the National Hockey League (NHL).
‘Red Army’ reveals the player’s struggle against the system,
which saw the hero of CSKA fans turning into an enemy of state.
Fetisov had to go through a year-long ban from hockey before he
fulfilled his dream of moving to the NHL in 1989.
He spent 10 seasons in North America, wining two Stanley Cups
titles with the Detroit Red Wings and earning himself a place in
the Hockey Hall of Fame.
Besides Fetisov, Polsky managed to talk with such hockey greats
like Scotty Bowman, Aleksey Kasatonov and Vladislav Tretyak, with
the movie also featuring one of the last interviews by Vladimir
Krutov, who passed away in 2012.
Sony Pictures Classics bought North American, Asian and Eastern
European distribution rights to ‘Red Army’ back in April.
The company has issued a statement, in which it called Polsky’s
movie “Russian history as seen from the perspective of
professional ice hockey.”
