Fair Play (2014)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | fair play |
| Original title | fair play |
| Country of production |
Czech Republic Slovakia Germany |
| original language | Czech |
| Publishing year | 2014 |
| length | 100 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Andrea Sedláčková |
| script | Irena Hejdová Andrea Sedláčková |
| production | Kateřina Černá Pavel Strnad |
| music | Miro Žbirka David Solař |
| camera | Jan Baset Střítežský |
| cut | Jakub Hejna |
| occupation | |
| |
Fair Play is a Czech - Slovak - German drama from 2014.
action
The action of the film begins at the end of 1983 in Prague. The young Czechoslovak athlete Anna has just graduated from high school and was accepted into the Czechoslovak national team. She trains hard with the aim of competing internationally and qualifying for the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games . She lives with her mother in a small apartment. Anna's mother Irena used to be a successful tennis player herself, but had to bow to the orders of the regime fifteen years ago due to her husband's inadvertent flight and expose herself to arbitrary state behavior. So now she has to get by as a cleaning lady.
Anna meets Tomáš on the tram, and the two fall in love. At the training center, Anna is informed by her trainer and the Deputy Minister Kracik that she, like her friend and rival Martina, has been selected for a special program. In this the most suitable athletes will receive advanced medical training and support methods of their socialist fatherland. In order to promote her muscle building, she should be injected with Stromba. Anna is a bit skeptical because she B. should sign a confidentiality agreement. You still get involved. But there are always problems. Her menstrual period stops and she gets excessive hair growth on her body. One day she has a physical breakdown and comes to the hospital with poor liver values, whereby the doctor refuses to treat her after the information about the special drug intake in the national team. From Anna's friend Tomáš they learn that Stromba (active ingredient: stanozolol ) is an anabolic steroid and is used for doping. Anna doesn't want to continue taking the drug and she and her mother decide to just inject vitamin B instead. Due to her current relationship with Tomáš and the fact that she almost only knows her father by phone, Anna's desire to travel to the West is no longer so prominent. Anna's performance is deteriorating and her qualification for the Olympic Games is in jeopardy. Since Irena very much wishes that her daughter Anna can get to the West through her sporting achievements and can finally emigrate, she and Anna's trainer Bohdan decide to continue injecting Stromba by replacing the vitamin B ampoules. When Anna finds out, she moves in with her boyfriend and his parents. At the qualifying competitions in Karl-Marx-Stadt, Anna found out through a letter shortly after arrival that Tomáš and his parents had emigrated to Austria. She wins the competition and qualifies for the Los Angeles Games. Martina finished fourth and did not meet the norm.
In the meantime, the Czechoslovak State Security, using bugging and house searches, has discovered that Irena repeatedly supported the dissident and her former love Marek by typing his writings on her typewriter. This is of course used as leverage against Irena and Anna. Deputy Minister Kracik is committed to ensuring that Anna can continue to drive to the Olympic Games. However, she had to testify against Marek and her mother. She refuses and tells Kracik and Bohdan straight to their faces that they no longer want to support this system, even if it costs them their sporting career. Irena is sentenced to 18 months imprisonment without parole, Anna takes a regular job in a company. When Anna comes home, she hears on the radio that the Czechoslovak team is not going to Los Angeles because they are joining the boycott of the other Eastern Bloc countries . Anna walks up to it, just by herself, without any pressure.
background
The film was shot on locations in the Czech Republic (Prague, Vysoké Tatry in the High Tatras), Slovakia (Bratislava) and Germany. The scenes in Karl-Marx-Stadt of the 1980s were recorded in today's Chemnitz ( Karl-Marx-Monument ) and in Dresden ( Heinz-Steyer-Stadion as a film set for the stadium in Karl-Marx-Stadt).
reception
The lexicon of international films describes the film as "an intense sports drama as a reflection of the bigoted performance society in a lost political system."
According to the 3sat review, "the Prague filmmaker Andrea Sedláčková managed a sensitively staged drama that made doping a major film topic for the first time under socialism."
Web links
- Fair Play in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Film details on Fair Play (Federal Archives). Retrieved August 9, 2020 .
- ↑ Filming locations of Fair Play in Germany (Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung). Retrieved August 9, 2020 .
- ↑ Fair Play. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed August 9, 2020 .
- ↑ Film screening - Fair Play (3sat). Retrieved August 9, 2020 .