Ink Big!

The critics have done their job film does not presuppose that the spectators of this film should be born with a basketball in their hands. And as a proper sports film, the director has removed the unnecessary and annoying “only for the fans” spirit while at the same time putting the sports as such shamelessly on a pedestal. Already in the very first minutes of the film basketball is introduced – and we are talking about basketball that is larger than life, something that we don’t normally see. This is the sport that even those not so familiar with the subject want to experience and breathe in.

Let me bring some examples. The character of Aivar Kuusmaa (played by Reimo Sagor) looks like a young, blonde, cool Greek god. When flying off the handle, he puts on his headphones and listens to heavy metal music, keeping it cool. Mait Malmsten plays the role of

Kalev

By Kaspar Viilup

Jaak Salumets, who at first glance seems to be an anti-hero with a very short fuse; however, underneath the cold surface a passionate and really likeable individual will show up during the hour and a half. These frontmen of Estonian basketball have been delineated in the present film to the maximum, they become even almost caricatures; though not in the negative, but rather in an empowering sense.

Such an approach to a sports feature is typical of Hollywood films – fast cut editing, an effective and swiftly moving screenplay, not to mention the sex appeal of the protagonists, emphasized to the silliest degree. Well, the Estonian national basketball team Kalev indeed had the effect of a gust of fresh air directly from the West in the early 1990s. The guys played basketball in Nike Air Jordan sneakers, there were cheerleaders and a team mascot; and there was a black player in the team, George Jackson. And director Ove Musting has nailed down the exact spirit really well.

The Kalev basketball team was indeed like a foreign body in Soviet Estonia back at that time; journalists kept trying to pull the rug from under their feet, and even local people expressed their contempt, but the fact is that the team was always supported by an audience. People should not have liked them (or at least, this liking should not have been publicly declared!), but this immorally enchanting basketball team completely wrapped the people around