Passion, sacrifice, fight… – all the faces of volleyball in the movie „The Team” about Poland men’s national team

It’s easy to make a tribute to the winners. You can simply show their victories, enjoy with them their successes, and reveal their greatness to the world. But what happens when these winners had suddenly lost their power? When after years of regular standing on the podium they were brought down to the ground? How do you tell their story? The authors of the movie “Drużyna” (“The Team”) met the challenge, as fans and critics have seen on the premiere night in Warsaw, 5th August, 2014.

“The Team” is the second movie about volleyball in polish history. The first one, “Kat” (“The Torturer”), is dedicated to the coach Hubert Jerzy Wagner, whose team won the World Championship in 1974 and the Olympic Games in 1976. 40 years after such great victories we received a new movie.  It can’t be equaled to its predecessor in any measure – everything in volleyball has changed from that time: the rules, system of preparations, position of this sport, and, most importantly, the players themselves. In “The Team” we see a new generation of athletes who represent not only polish volleyball – every fan in the world can discover the life of a volleyball player in general, his struggles, pains, and sacrifices he has to make every single day.

The picture of Michał Bielawski had its premiere in a unique period. Poland, for the first time in its history, is the host of the biggest event in volleyball: Men’s World Championship. The tournament starts in a few weeks andMichał Ruciak, receiver of the national team, thinks that it is a perfect time to see “The Team: “Fans will see us not only on the field, but they will be able to find out what it takes to actually get on this field.  We don’t make sacrifices once in a year or for three or four months each season. We work hard for years, each and every day. The supporters can see this in the movie and evaluate our work afterwards.”

Not everyone knows, but expectations for the team in Poland are extremely high, especially when we are the hosts of the World Championship. Previous years had accustomed public opinion to medals. Silver at the 2006 World Championship, trophies from the 2009 and 2011 European Championship, silver in the World Cup in 2011, third place in the World League in 2011 and gold in 2012. After all of that, people were convinced that volleyball players just have to win, that it is their duty. Everything broke down at the Olympics in London. We were going there as favorites, but came back with broken hearts and minds. The players were painfully hammered for the result. The situation didn’t get better in the coming year, as we dropped out of the World League and the European Championship.

In these painful and hard moments, the crew of “The Team” was around. Beata Machała, the producer and one of the originators of the movie, tells that gaining players’ trust was not an easy task: “Media always praise them when they win, but criticize harshly when they lose, so they didn’t trust our cameras at the beginning. They couldn’t believe us that we actually want to show their work from very positive perspective. I think that now they trust us the most when the movie is out, but it’s too late to film something more (laughs).”

If you’re looking for a movie that reveals scandals and seeks for sensations, you don’t want to see “The Team.” Also, you won’t find too much entertainment in it, with the exception of few scenes taken from private archives of Krzysztof Ignaczak (libero of the national team) and some shots of goofing around during practices. But if you want to know how does the life of an athlete really look like, how hard he works, how he rises after defeats and how happy he is when he achieves his goals – “The Team” is the right choice. There is no pomposity nor pathos – just sport at its best and worst.

Well actually, not just sport. We are given a closer look to the work of media, staff of the team, and even to the rehearsals of cheerleaders. At the shots from sports halls, we can see thousands of fans cheering and screaming for their team. Viewers are immediately penetrated with emotions. I think that everyone had goose bumps while the national anthem sang by ten thousand of fans rang through the cinema’s speakers. It’s an amazing feeling and I wish everyone had occasion to experience something like that.

The biggest recommendation for the movie are the positive reactions of players themselves. Michał Ruciak says: “I am really surprised by the outcome, how nicely everything is shown. We are impressed about the professionalism of the crew. They didn’t disturb us at practices, but now we can see that they actually have been there and what they were doing all the time.” Director Bielawski also said that the work on that movie was “workshop on invisibility.”

Common appreciation is being given to the music composed by Krzysztof A. Janczak and to photography byTomasz Naumiuk, Kamil Płocki, Filip Pakuła, and Mateusz Wichłacz. They give this documentary a unique touch – you feel like you’re watching a regular movie because of the high quality of production.

There are good news for everyone that would like to see the movie but don’t speak polish: “We are invited to the Sport Film Festival in Montreal,” says Beata Machała. “They are asking us for the english version to show “The Team” there in December. We want to present the movie on the other festivals as well, moreover, we have a plan to release it to the TV stations worldwide, during most important volleyball events in the future. Everything to show the popularity of volleyball in Poland.”

The movie can be simply called a story about hard work that can lead you anywhere you want. As Bartosz Kurek, receiver of the national team, says “I don’t believe in any magical mobilization before the game. I believe in work.”

Gallery from the premiere can be found here; soon we will provide you with the video from the event with English subtitles.

Agata Stachowiak / s-w-o.pl