Eleven Hopes

Eleven Hopes is a Soviet sports comedy directed by Viktor Sadovsky and made at the Lenfilm studio, from a screenplay by Valentin Ezhov and Sadovsky. The story follows the building of a football team and the troubles and comic episodes it goes through while getting ready for the World Cup. To give the football scenes a realistic feel, the national team's training sequences were filmed at the Udelynaya facilities of the Leningrad club Zenit. Sporting authenticity came from consultants German Zonin, a former coach of Zenit and the Soviet national side, and Nikolai Lukshinov, who had coached Zenit as well as the Albanian national team. The leading roles are played by Anatoli Papanov and Armen Dzhigarkhanyan. Shot in colour, the picture stands among the Soviet cinema's sport-themed comedies of its era.