THE FILM VERDICT: What made you decide now was the right time to tell the story of the Kalev basketball team?
OVE MUSTING: That’s hard to say, because we started working on the project in 2016. My producer told me about this event, which I vaguely remembered watching as a teenager, and I was shocked no one had tried to make a movie about it before. So I started writing the script, and I interviewed as many of the real players as I could. But that was difficult, because I was trying to find a story on which to build the movie and they kept saying everything was perfect and there were no issues with the Russians. At the same time, I read about the head coach being under a lot of pressure: journalists hated him, and half the country thought taking part in a Soviet championship was a terrible idea. And of course, when I asked the players which of them was the star at the time, each of them said ‘I was!’ (laughs). In the end, once I had the necessary background information, I made up a lot of the plot.
TFV: And what’s it like to have the movie out now, with the current Russian situation?
OM: It’s very weird. Our first teaser was ready at the end of February, just when the war started, and we thought we couldn’t release the film, it would look like we were exploiting this theme. It’s strange how, 31 years after the events depicted in the movie, nothing has changed. I remember one day in 1991, I was 14 years old, and we were at school, in class, when they announced that tanks had attacked Vilnius. We thought another war was about to start. History is repeating itself, just later than we expected. It’s a weird world we live in, and people have been asking me how I feel about the movie now. I don’t really know how to answer that, because everything I had to say on the subject is in the film.
TFV: How have people responded to the film in Estonia?
OM: I don’t know about the Eastern part of the country [where Russian is the majority language in some cities], but Estonian audiences have responded very warmly, to my surprise. It seems like they needed this movie now more than ever. It would have been quite different if we had premiered a couple of years ago, as opposed to now.
TFV: How have the Kalev players reacted? Have they seen the film?
OM: They’ve seen it, and I was quite nervous at first. I was sure someone would punch me in the face after the premiere. One sports journalist said we had a completely different perspective on history, but he liked our version better than the real event (laughs). That was quite a compliment. The coaches, on the other hand, were afraid before the premiere, but after seeing the film they were quite happy. The team’s manager was sitting in front of me, and I saw he was crying. He thanked me afterwards and said I made history. He’s the one who made history! I just wrote it down.
TFV: How does it feel to tell the story of Estonia’s relationship with Russia via a very American genre, the sports movie?
OM: Life is full of surprises. The thing that struck me the most was the wonderful coincidence that a few months after the championship, we got our independence [with the Estonian Restoration of Independence]. I thought there was a movie in that combination of elements. It was a great year, 1991.
TFV: How do you expect American audiences to respond to the film?
OM: Honestly, I have no idea. Obviously, I hope they enjoy it, but the truth is, when we started working on the project, we didn’t think about international audiences because it’s such a local story. I don’t know how many people abroad really care about our politics. To this day, when I say I’m from Estonia, there are some who think it’s part of Russia.
TFV: Then again, it’s been said that the more culturally specific a story is, the more universal it becomes. Do you agree with that, as a viewer?
OM: That is true. We’ve had some private Academy screenings in Los Angeles, and people liked it because it’s a different kind of sports movie. Right now, in 2022, we’ve seen all kinds of sports movies, political movies, thrillers. So maybe yes, this story which is not particularly well known is what audiences need.
Interview conducted by Max Borg
