Like Rocky IV on ice, Gabe Polsky’s enthralling doc nips behind the Iron Curtain to tell the story of the Soviet Red Army side of the ’70s and ’80s, the greatest ice hockey team in history. Defenseman Slava Fetisov takes the Drago role as the team’s spiritual leader in a film which probes at the priorities of a regime that prized sporting glory over all else.
His interviews with Polsky are as entertaining as his slick interplay in the rink even if the main mystery — how such a controlling state could breed a team so packed with spontaneity and artistry — remains tantalisingly out of reach.