Soccer Poker (1989)
Laguna was once a great soccer player whose career was interrupted by an injury. He spent years climbing the ranks to become an international referee. He sees the prevailing arrangements, manipulations, and bribery around him. Now desperate, he decides to stage an extraordinary culmination of his career: he wants to create a so-called "miracle Sunday" by "printing" the final round of games - taking substantial bribes from the interested clubs and manipulating the matches so that the results align in the order he set up.
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To me, this movie is perfection.
Simply Perfect
Sadly Over-hyped
This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.
A comedy that shows Polish soccer business in Poland in middle of 1980s. The movie (made a few years before collapse of communistic regime) is also some portrait of these times. While the club names and their presidents or players seem to be fictional, it is obvious that in this movie everything is connected with reality. The director (Mr. Zaorski) seems to be a fan of Legia Warsaw (in the movie as Powisle Warszawa). However you can believe that soccer is full of corruption and the fans really know nothing that the games' results are set not on the grass but in some bars, brothels and other places.The main character is ex-player, now referee, Mr. Laguna. He is the one honest man left in the league, however he has the problems with his wife. Because he is very naive, everyone uses him - without letting him to know - to get necessary results of the games. But one day his ex-friend shows him the truth. Now, he is going to play his own game and starts to use his rivals' methods. But one day there is a game for that he can get lots of money. Will he keep his rest of honesty?