A Soviet sports drama where belief matters more than medals — and the coach is the real underdog.
Innocent, a new coach in gymnastics, who arrived in the Siberian town, is a risk to his students to believe in themselves, in senior competitions replaces them strong competitors and get the expected result.
Acting
Boris Gitin's understated coach avoids all sports-movie clichés.
Direction
Bazelyan finds poetry in frozen Siberian landscapes.
Director
Yakov Bazelyan
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Soviet sports films of this era rarely focused on individual psychology; this one's almost radical in its intimacy.
Director Yakov Bazelyan was primarily a documentarian, which explains the film's observational, unglamorous approach to athletic training.
SU
