IMDb RATING
7.4/10
8.4K
YOUR RATING
Dimitry hires German coach Rudolph Spitz to galvanize his ragtag team into the country's best football club, but then the first Nazi tanks roll in and Rebecca, a local banker's beautiful dau... Read allDimitry hires German coach Rudolph Spitz to galvanize his ragtag team into the country's best football club, but then the first Nazi tanks roll in and Rebecca, a local banker's beautiful daughter, elopes with his star player.Dimitry hires German coach Rudolph Spitz to galvanize his ragtag team into the country's best football club, but then the first Nazi tanks roll in and Rebecca, a local banker's beautiful daughter, elopes with his star player.
- Awards
- 1 win & 1 nomination
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Did you know
- TriviaThe official submission of Macedonia to the Best Foreign Language Film of the 85th Academy Awards 2013.
- GoofsThe film contains several factual mistakes that are very easy to be checked, because there is a video and photo archive of this football match between FC Makedonia and FC Levski in the archive to SS.Cyril and Metodius National Library in Sofia. For example, nowhere in the meeting is not waving Nazi flags, like shown in the movie. The film argues that the players of FC Levski raise their hands in a Nazi salute "Heil Hitler", but as the link below shows that hands of both of the teams are raised and it is not a Nazi salute, but simply hands raised in the air. At the second photo from the link below you may see that actually as a Nazi salute "Heil Hitler" have raised the players of FC Macedonia. One more factual mistake is that at the movie is shown that the Bulgarian administrative and military authorities are deporting the Jews from Skopie and two more cities to the gas chambers of Treblinka. The truth is that the Bulgarian police at this area is under German control. Factual mistake is that on the carriages used for the Jews deportation is written "BDZ" (Bulgarian State Railways), but at the photos from the same period is visible that this is not true, because in fact the carriages arrives from Germany and they belong to the Third Reich.. The Bulgarian Ministry of Truth and Historical Revisionism.
Featured review
Good, war-time drama blending history, love and sports into an engaging film from a little-known place in Southeastern Europe
This film has been unfairly criticized in my opinion. Even before the film was released, news articles were turning up with angry Bulgarians complaining about the historical accuracy of the film well before it was even viewable to the public. But the film is not about the Macedonian-Bulgarian problem in foreign relations, it is about the Jewish community in that region, the Holocaust, love between a young man and a young woman, and love for football (soccer).
One of the major strengths of the film is the multiple languages used fluently throughout (English, Ladino, German, Serbian, Bulgarian, Roma and Macedonian,), with some of the actors, especially Rade Serbedzija, doing a good, convincing job in their roles. Although the film stretches a few historical points in order to create a better story, it does depict most of the events of WWII in the Balkans correctly. It depicts the ethnic multiplicity in the region of Macedonia before the war, the local resentment to Yugoslav rule, the Axis invasion, the initial support of the local population to Bulgarian occupation, and the expulsion of the majority of Macedonia's Jews to the death camps at Treblinka.
Some criticisms of the film include its length, and the characters. It tries to depict several years, but without effectively portraying the passing from one time to another, leaving the viewer confused as to when the story is taking place at any certain point. Also, many of the characters have little depth, and seem rather one dimensional (although there are a few characters who the audience learns to empathize with).
Other than these criticisms, it is a great film. Bulgarian nationalists' opinions should not decide whether one should see the film or not. During World War II the Bulgarians saved the Jews of Bulgaria from the Nazi death camps, but in the zones they occupied, they rounded up the Jews and sent them to their deaths on their own, without German help. That is what this movie is about. If the Bulgarians want to portray their efforts in saving Jews, watch a different movie.
One of the major strengths of the film is the multiple languages used fluently throughout (English, Ladino, German, Serbian, Bulgarian, Roma and Macedonian,), with some of the actors, especially Rade Serbedzija, doing a good, convincing job in their roles. Although the film stretches a few historical points in order to create a better story, it does depict most of the events of WWII in the Balkans correctly. It depicts the ethnic multiplicity in the region of Macedonia before the war, the local resentment to Yugoslav rule, the Axis invasion, the initial support of the local population to Bulgarian occupation, and the expulsion of the majority of Macedonia's Jews to the death camps at Treblinka.
Some criticisms of the film include its length, and the characters. It tries to depict several years, but without effectively portraying the passing from one time to another, leaving the viewer confused as to when the story is taking place at any certain point. Also, many of the characters have little depth, and seem rather one dimensional (although there are a few characters who the audience learns to empathize with).
Other than these criticisms, it is a great film. Bulgarian nationalists' opinions should not decide whether one should see the film or not. During World War II the Bulgarians saved the Jews of Bulgaria from the Nazi death camps, but in the zones they occupied, they rounded up the Jews and sent them to their deaths on their own, without German help. That is what this movie is about. If the Bulgarians want to portray their efforts in saving Jews, watch a different movie.
helpful•47
- Don_Lephtie
- Feb 16, 2014
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Details
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- Also known as
- Третий тайм
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- See more company credits at IMDbPro
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- Budget
- €2,300,000 (estimated)
- Runtime1 hour 53 minutes
- Color
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- Aspect ratio
- 2.35 : 1
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