Gabe Polsky’s documentary is nominally about ice hockey, but culture and politics provide the driving force as the Russians go head to head with the Americans in a battle of ideology, economics and art. At their peak, the Soviet team worked as a collective, the sporting embodiment of a socialist ideal that didn’t translate easily to the free market of the NHL. Former team captain Viacheslav “Slava” Fetisov, now a member of the upper house of the Federal Assembly of Russia, is in taciturn form as he recalls his fights with the authorities while remaining defensively loyal to the motherland.
