Trainer (film, 2018)

Captain of the Russian national team Yuri Stoleshnikov does not score a penalty in the final minutes of the decisive qualifying match for the World Cup with the national team of Romania . Then he knocks down an opponent, shouts at the judge, gets a red card and, leaving the field, starts a fight with the fans. As a result, the national team loses 0: 1, and Stoleshnikov gets an annual disqualification, leaves Spartak and decides to end the player’s career.

It takes 2 years, Stoleshnikov never found a job. Unexpectedly, he is offered the post of head coach of the Meteor team from Novorossiysk , who plays in the second most powerful league of the Russian championship . Stoleshnikov agrees and meets with the president of "Meteor" Larisa Volskaya, the daughter of the mayor of the city. Larisa informs him that the club has just sold two leading football players due to financial difficulties. Yuri becomes enraged, and, having cooled down a bit, asks why he was chosen as a coach among other candidates. Larisa tells Yuri that he is in such a desperate situation that he will simply have to make a miracle, and it is these people who make them - it will be a miracle if they do not build a shopping center on the site of the Meteora stadium in the near future. The team Yuri faced with the same mood - the players gained extra weight, in training appear with a hangover, but they are only interested in salaries and bonuses. Stoleshnikov decides to fight with such sentiments, forcing football players to train by shaking their bodies in cellophane. For this, he is reprimanded by the coach of the Berger club's children's team: this is a big load on the heart. The rehabilitation doctor of the Varya team blames Stoleshnikov for the fact that because of this, the athletes began to receive too many injuries.

The first match under the leadership of Stoleshnikov (9th round of the league against Tambov) the team loses 0: 2, but after the game, the players of Meteora have fun in the locker room. In the next match (the 14th round of the league against Shinnik), Yuriy sees his players openly “pass” the game. He replaces the saboteurs and lets out an inexperienced but talented striker Zuev, but older players cool the beginner's ardor; Meteor loses 0: 2. At the next training session, Yuri comes drunk and laughs at one of the players, who made a bet against his team under his own name. Yuri leaves the stadium, Varya catches up with him, they drink together in a cafe. In the morning, Yuri wakes up in Wari's apartment, talks to her sister Dasha, and they quickly become friends.

Stoleshnikov agrees with the team: he will not interfere with them, but will simply watch their workouts from the podium, but two conditions must be observed: do not drink at the stadium and do not touch the ball; for a touch - a fine of 1000 rubles. Yuri offers Berger to become his assistant: the majority of Meteor players are his students; Berger agrees. Then Yuri comes to the bar of fans of "Meteor" and persuades them to support the team. Fans come to the next training session and blame the players for being bored. Players do not stand up and start playing with the ball, and the penalty for violating the coach’s requirement does not frighten them. The fans are happy. Yuri in the locker room explains to the players that in the championship they have nothing to shine, but you need to try to play well in the Russian Cup.

In 1/32 finals of the Cup of Russia "Meteor" with a score of 1: 0 wins "Avant-garde". After the match, Yuri learns that because of debts the club was deprived of the transfer window , and the team will not be able to strengthen. He talks with the mayor and he says that he will not allow spending the budget funds and investments of local enterprises for football, which nobody needs here. The team hangs with an unaffordable load on the city budget (it costs him 200 million rubles a year) and no one will object if Meteor falls to the lower league again. Yuri comes to Moscow to his father and asks him to come to him in Novorossiysk. His father offers Yuri to enter the field himself, but he replies that he finally became a coach.

In the quarterfinals of the Russian Cup, Meteor meets with the team (Torpedo), about which it is known that its leadership bribed the judge. The arbitrators actively podsuzhivayu rival, despite the fact that Berger, at the request of Larissa, also bribed them, so that they could judge honestly. The judge claims that "above" decided "Meteor" no longer allowed, and he can return the money. But Meteor wins (2: 1). After the game, Yuri tries to bring up Zuev, but Varya stands up for him, and Yuri interrupts her angry tirade with a kiss. It should be a night of love.

Suddenly, Yuri is called from Moscow and reported on the death of his father, and he flies to Moscow.

In the semifinals, Meteor beats "Torch" (1: 0) at the last minute. A streamer “Yura, you and I!” With a portrait of Stoleshnikov’s father appears in the stands. Yuri touched to tears.

Soon, Yuri was invited to train FC Spartak. In Novorossiysk, everyone is upset, although they are sympathetic to such a choice. Varia refuses to go with Moscow to Yuri. Stoleshnikov arrives in the capital; in his father’s apartment, he sees a Meteor t-shirt hanging on the wall. He returns to Novorossiysk, Varya forgives him. As a result, the team is officially coached by Berger, and Yury signs a football player as a free agent, which he became after the expiration of the disqualification period.

In the final of the Russian Cup in Krasnodar , Meteor plays against Spartak and loses 0: 2 after the first half. The judges do not count the goal correctly scored by Stoleshnikov, during the break Larisa threatens the main judge to break a career if he continues to destroy her team. In the second half, Stoleshnikov earns a penalty, but he does not break it, having been injured. The score becomes 1: 2, but Stoleshnikov cannot continue the match. The match is nearing its end. Stoleshnikov produces Zuev, but he is at a loss. Yuri activates the fans, and they chant the name of Zuev. Zuev comes to his senses and first makes the score 2: 2, and at the end of the game goes one on one and gives a heel pass back to the oncoming player - 3: 2. At the last minute added, the goalkeeper of “Meteor” takes the ball during the performance of a dangerous free-kick by the player of “Spartak”. The whistle sounds, fixing the victory of "Meteor"; fans rejoice.

Final Scene: London , Stamford Bridge Stadium, a match within the Europa League . Chelsea and Meteor are entering the field ^[5] .

According to Danila Kozlovsky, he had long dreamed about the role of a football coach. At the initial stage of work, he considered his participation in the project only as an actor and producer, but then he realized that he would like to “ tell this story himself ” - as a director ^[1] . At the dawn of his career, in 2005, Kozlovsky played the role of the football player Nikolai in the film “ Garpastum ” by Alexey German Jr. The plot of the film tells of football in Tsarist Russia ^[1] .

Olga Zueva, who worked with Kozlovsky in the film “ On the District ”, initially asked for the role of Vari. But Danila thought that she was completely unsuitable for the type and image, and continued to look for another performer. Meanwhile, Olga reworked the script, giving the character of her heroine more strength, courage and some eccentrics . The director positively evaluated the proposals and approved the actress for the role ^[5] .

All the workers of the set were wearing Meteor brand jackets. If the camera captured one of them when turning, it fit into the frame as an employee of the club ^[5] .

The project was created with the support of the Ministry of Sports of the Russian Federation , the Russian Football Union and personally Vitaly Mutko ^[1] . The film also received financial support from the Cinema Foundation ^[6] .

About 3,000 professional football players tried out for the role in the film, from which the project creators selected about 200 people ^[4] . They included Alan Gatagov and Dmitry Sychev ; according to the results of the shooting, the latter compared Kozlovsky with Guus Hiddink , who, combining demanding and democratic, managed to lead the team to the bronze medals of the 2008 European Championship ^[5] . For two months, the team, assembled from athletes interspersed with the actors, lived in a tough sport mode - Kozlovsky also trained with them ^[5] . According to the calculations of the magazine StarHit, the costs of their fees amounted to about 5 million rubles ^[7] . The production budget of the film is 390 million rubles, the projected fees were 680 million rubles ^[2] .

Shooting

The filming process lasted from April 24 ^[1] to July 6, 2017 ^[6] . The training base of FC "Meteor" was filmed at the Central Stadium of Novorossiysk - the home arena of FC " Chernomorets " ^[5] . In total, the film used six football stadiums, including Saturn , Otkrytie Arena , Arena Khimki and Krasnodar .

The shooting took place in the evening and at night - from 17 to 7 hours. In the crowd - in the roles of fans - about 450 people were shot ^[7] .

The film received an average rating of Russian film critics. The reviewer Anton Dolin gave the film 6 points out of 10 ^[8] .