- DYNAMO
The 300 star, Gerard Butler, has signed on to headline Dynamo, an
adaptation of Andy Dougan's nonfiction novel, "Dynamo: Defending the
Honour of Kiev." Published in 2002, the book is officially described as
follows:
“In 1942 at the centre point of World War II an
extraordinary event took place not on the battlefield but in a municipal
stadium in Kiev. This is the true story of courage, team loyalty and fortitude
in the face of the most brutal oppression the world had ever seen.
When Hitler initiated Operation Barbarossa in June 1941, he
caught the Soviet Union completely by surprise. At breathtaking speed his
armies swept east, slaughtering the ill-prepared Soviet forces. His greatest
military gains of the entire war were made in a few short months, and the
largest single country that he conquered was the Ukraine, roughly the size of
France. Ukraine's capital, Kiev, was circled, assaulted and overrun, and among
the city's defenders who were captured and incarcerated were many of the
members of the sparkling 1939 Dynamo Kiev football team, arguably the best in
Europe before the war.
 |
| Gerard Butler |
Captured Kiev was a starving city whose population were
deported in vast numbers as slave labour. However one man determined to save
not just the surviving players from the Dynamo side but other athletes. He
offered them work, shelter and, most valuable, bread, as workers in his bakery.
Inspired by the charismatic goalkeeper Trusevich, the Dynamo
side was re-formed as Start FC and a series of fixtures was arranged, all of
which the team win handsomely, to such an extent that they inspired Kievan
spirits. The final fixture against the Luftwaffe was agreed by the German
authorities: a well-fed team from the Fatherland would vanquish the upstart
Ukrainians, especially if the game was refereed by an SS officer. The match is
an allegory of resistance; its consequences are brutal.
Andy Dougan has
discovered the truth behind a legendary encounter, sorting fact from fiction
and restoring to the centre of World War II a moment of extraordinary poignancy
and complex bravery, of which the cliche is demonstrably true: football is not
a matter of life or death; it's much more important than that.”
Butler can now be seen in theaters in Chasing Mavericks and
will next star in the White House siege thriller Olympus Has Fallen, set for
release on April 5, 2013.
No comments:
Post a Comment