Kalev
Basketball as a weapon against oppression. Lithuania and Latvia separate from the regime of the USSR and declare independence. Zalgiris from Kaunas announces that the strongest Lithuanian basketball team will not play in the Supreme League. Many Estonian athletes refuse to participate in various Soviet competitions, but the demanding and ambitious coach Jaak Salumets decides to accept the challenge of taking the strong local team Kalev to what is still the biggest basketball competition in the world. Even if they are despised as communist collaborators and unpatriotic traitors, players gain motivation from a higher salary, the promised sponsorship deals and possible professional careers in foreign clubs – if they manage to defeat CSKA, Dynamo, Spartak, and Avtodorozhnik.
It was a decisive year for Kalev and for everyone else. Tensions outside the court were enormous, sometimes unbearable. The players were under severe mental pressure from rigged games, bribed referees, political demands, responsibilities to their families, and physical training with the hired Lithuanian coach Pranas, who knew the weight which Arvydas Sabonis could lift with playful ease.
A close bond and team spirit grows between the shooter of killer three-pointers, Aivar Kuusmaa, and Marcus Metstak, Tiit Sokk, the young naive talented debutant Gert Kullamäe and the first American legionnaire Jackson, as Kalev becomes unstoppable and fights for much more than just the result. They must win this tournament for the sake of freedom of all the Baltic countries.
Basketball films are still rare on the big screen despite the huge success of “Hustle” with the future European Champion Juancho Hernangomez. The legendary Lithuanian team Zalgiris (which held a historical game against CSKA) has not yet earned a proper feature film. The Estonian debutant Ove Musting who was invited to the international premiere at the 1-2 Competition of the Warsaw International Film Festival, has managed to capture the true beauty of basketball and the taste of superhuman victories, reminding us of the cult players with whom we grew up and carefully unveiling the tactics of the game which in the fateful season of 1990–1991 meant a lot more than just a field of sports involving an orange ball.
Edvinas Pukšta
Log in to add film to shortlist
Screenwriter, producer, and director Ove Musting was born on February 22, 1977, in Sõmerpalu. He graduated in 2002 from Tallinn University in the field of audiovisual arts. He has furthered his education through various professional training courses. He is the director and format creator of numerous television shows. He has worked as the multi-camera director for major broadcasts such as "Eesti Laul", the Song Celebration, and the Republic Day performances, among others. He is a founding member of the bands Winny Puhh and Aednikud. He is also a co-founder of the circular economy platform Smartswap.com. He received several festival awards already for his first student work, "Suicide" (1997). In 2022, he made his feature film debut with "Kalev", for which he received the Cultural Endowment’s annual award for audiovisual arts debut, and in 2023, six EFTA awards.
Award for Best Baltic Film, grant of 5000€ from Piletilevi
