Red Army (directed by Gabe Polsky) will play the 2014 Cannes Film Festival (full lineup Don Cherry and Ronald Reagan alone make me want to see it.
Here’s the official synopsis:
Following the Soviet Union during the height of the Cold War, Red Army tells the story of the nation’s famed Red Army hockey team through the eyes of its captain Slava Fetisov. Whether he was pitted against enemies in the political arena or on the ice, Fetisov’s story provides a rare glimpse behind the Iron Curtain of the 1970s and ’80s by mirroring the social and political forces at work in the world around him. While helping pave the way for his nation to cross over into the next century, this one man demonstrated how sports could not only be an avenue for creative expression in a world determined to suppress it, but also be something so inextricably intertwined with a nation’s cultural and political identity.
Fetisov would eventually play for the New Jersey Devils and won back-to-back Stanley Cup championships with the ’97 and ’98 Detroit Red Wings. After winning in ’97 he took the Cup home to Moscow, which was the first time it had ever appeared in Russia.
We’ve always heard the story of the Russian hockey team from the U.S. perspective, largely when it comes to the 1980 U.S. men’s team that, against all odds, beat Russia before going on to win the gold medal by defeating Finland. Red Army looks to give us the story from a different perspective.
