''Wild League'' () is a 2019 Russian historical

sports Sport is a physical activity or game, often competitive and organized, that maintains or improves physical ability and skills. Sport may provide enjoyment to participants and entertainment to spectators. The number of participants in ...

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular ...

is based on real events of the beginning of 20th century and the appearance of football in the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

. The brave barge hauler Varlam is being trained at an English football club and, together with the merchant-patriot Balashov, is creating the first national team in Russia, co-directed by Andrey Bogatyrev and

Art Camacho Art Camacho is an American film director, producer, actor and stuntman. His directorial work includes ''Recoil'' in 1998, '' 13 Dead Men'' in 2003, '' Confessions of a Pit Fighter'' in 2005 and '' Half Past Dead 2'' in 2007; Assassin X in 2016 ...

. Unusual sports on the basis of real events of the early twentieth century, ''Wild League'' has assembled an international acting team, which included Vladimir Yaglych, Adelina Gizatullina,

Ivan Okhlobystin Ivan Ivanovich Okhlobystin (; born 22 July 1966) is a Russian actor, director, screenwriter, and former Orthodox priest. He was defrocked by the Russian Orthodox Church and barred from performing priestly rites because of the roles he played ...

Dmitry Nazarov Dmitry Yurievich Nazarov (; born 4 July 1957) is а Soviet and Russian actor, television presenter and poet. He was named People's Artist of Russia in 2000.

, Evgeniy Koryakovskiy, Olesya Sudzilovskaya and

Adrian Paul Adrian Paul Hewett (born 29 May 1959) is an English actor, martial artist and director best known for the title role of Duncan MacLeod on the television series '' Highlander: The Series''. In 1997, he founded the Peace Fund charitable organis ...

. It was released in the Russian Federation by Kinoland on October 24, 2019.

Plot

Nizhny Novgorod Governorate Nizhny Novgorod Governorate was an administrative-territorial unit (''guberniya'') of the Russian Empire, Russian Republic, and the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Russian SFSR, roughly corresponding to the Volga region, Upper and ...

in 1909 year. Based upon the real-life events of the 1910s, this extremely topical story is about a guy from the lowest social strata, who, in order to be with his beloved woman, had to leave his native land and to start his life anew in Moscow. Proved himself in a battle, he was noticed by the Englishman owning a closed soccer club, who invited him to try his hand at his team. However, soccer is an aristocratic game and the team didn't accept a barge-hauler from the Volga. Therefore, he gathered his courage, found the right people, with whom they created the Wild League consisted of street teams from Moscow. Thus, he became a leader, changing his life and the lives of people surrounding him. Varlamy replaced folk fun - battles «wall against the wall», in which perished ordinary people - with soccer. Now they're challenged by the soccer lawmakers.Дикая лига, 2019
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Cast

Cameos

Artem Dzyuba Artem (or Artyom) Sergeyevich Dzyuba (, ; born 22 August 1988) is a Russian professional footballer who plays as a striker for Russian Premier League club Akron Tolyatti and the Russia national team. He began his career with Spartak Moscow, ...

* Roman Zobnin

Production

The original screenplay was written by Roman Vladykin. The idea to make a film about the origin of football in Russia came to him in 2015. When Vladykin finished the script, he sent him to a contest at the Cinema Foundation of Russia, where he eventually won. After a while, the production company "New Time" bought out this scenario. They started shooting the film at the end of 2016. The picture was shot in

Moscow Oblast Moscow Oblast (, , informally known as , ) is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject of Russia (an oblast). With a population of 8,524,665 (Russian Census (2021), 2021 Census) living in an area of , it is one of the most densely populate ...

, the village of

Gorki Leninskiye Gorki Leninskiye (, ) is an urban locality (a work settlement) in Leninsky District of Moscow Oblast, Russia, located south of Moscow city limits and the Moscow Ring Road. Its population is: The estate of Gorki belonged to various Muscovite ...

, the city of

Yaroslavl Yaroslavl (; , ) is a city and the administrative center of Yaroslavl Oblast, Russia, located northeast of Moscow. The historic part of the city is a World Heritage Site, and is located at the confluence of the Volga and the Kotorosl rivers. ...

, the city of

Kostroma Kostroma (, ) is a historic city and the administrative center of Kostroma Oblast, Russia. A part of the Golden Ring of Russian cities, it is located at the confluence of the rivers Volga and Kostroma. In the 2021 census, the population is 267, ...

and territory of the

Krasnodar Krai Krasnodar Krai (, ) is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject of Russia (a krai), located in the North Caucasus region in Southern Russia and is administratively a part of the Southern Federal District. Its administrative center is the t ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wild League 2010s historical drama films 2010s sports drama films 2019 films Films set in the Russian Empire Russian association football films Russian historical drama films Russian sports drama films 2010s Russian films 2010s Russian-language films Films directed by Art Camacho Russian-language historical drama films Russian-language sports drama films