A Soviet coach discovers the beautiful game is rigged — and he's got receipts.
Oleg Norov, the coach of a soccer team, realizes that the matches are held according to the scheme of "secret totalizator" and decides to break the rules of the game not established by him. Self-investigation, which the coach starts, leads him to a fraudster nicknamed "Man Mountain".
Acting
Valentin Gaft's exhausted idealism carries every frame.
Direction
Gordon's slow dread builds like a match you can't win.
Director
Aleksandr Gordon
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Made as the USSR collapsed, it's essentially a metaphor for the entire Soviet experiment — fixed from the start, with everyone pretending not to know.
The 'secret totalizator' was real: underground betting rings operated in Soviet sports for decades, making this braver than it appears.
SU
