Provincial club “Red Hawk” goes to the Premier League, but loses its coach. Instead, main player Philip Nikitin (Ivan Yankovsky) is aiming for a kind of double: both maintaining his positions on the field and leading the team. But Nikitin is not a team player and needs a coach position not to conquer football heights, but to entertain his ego.
The director of “Red Hawk” Anton Danin (Maxim Matveev) knows this. In the recording of an analytical sports show, where the coach of a successful women’s team Elena Volkova (Svetlana Ustinova) cuts off her male colleagues, the heroine Matveeva sees an ideal candidate for the post of mentor. Impressed, Danin invites Volkova to the team and starts the main dramatic catalyst for the plot: the world of men’s football is extremely intolerant of women, especially female coaches. The ambitious Volkova plans to resist the sexism of the players and take the team to the European competitions (Danin especially maliciously grins at the latter).
Frame from the series “Home Field” (2022)
more.tv
“Home Field” is an adaptation of the Norwegian TV series “Home Field” in which the opening episodes are copied almost exactly from the original. However, with all the declared import substitution, the Russian version seems to be not just a Scandinavian counterpart. From the very first minutes, moviegoers will be familiar with the beginning of “Tedlassian”, about a grassroots team in the major leagues under the auspices of a new coach. Or the external image of the short-haired and absolutely masculine Ustinova, which crosses with Irina Gorbacheva in Aries. At the same time, “Ted Lasso” is filled with a strong spark of life, and “Aries” was a youthful candid project, impulsive about making a dream come true. The “home pitch” lacks the comforting note of the first and the insurance of the second.
The perfectly visually adjusted “In the Home Space” frame is in perpetual twilight, reminiscent of a gray zone in which the project finds itself. It has an interesting and even revolutionary concept for our facts (although borrowed from the Norwegians), but a very poor implementation.
Yes, the series (at least in the first episodes) does it in the spirit of “whatever a woman wants” without ignorant sexism and cliché presentations, and Ustinova’s heroine rushes to her goal like a ram. But talking about its subjectivity, volume, and well-thought-out character doesn’t work at all: instead of a lively and interesting human, we have a fast and emotionless talking robot, the cold appearance of a she-wolf (hence the “predatory” surname, apparently) and “die or die” ” setting.
Volkova is a stranger not only in a field not peculiar to her, but also in the general world of the series, she has no place in history: she walks back and forth, says something, dilutes her speech. Memorized quotes from Wikipedia and football terminology for true connoisseurs. It is clear that he is a professional in his field, but as we remember from school, cramming, a lot of weak students and not bright excellent students.
And the problems that Volkova faces are one-sided: there is an insurmountable sexism, but the side clichés and harassment of the accompanying women are simply ignored by the authors. But the difficulty that the protagonist admits is not only in the rejection of obscene comments, but also in the need to work with deliberately low and absurd salaries by football standards, for example, on painfully critical days with “I can not”, as well as obscenity. and rudeness in the men’s locker room and on the field.
And it’s not about “sensitive ears”, it’s about the hardness of the world where a woman has to work twice as hard to at least maintain her position. In the “Home Field”, unfortunately, those aspects that deprive the world of history of vital persuasion and enhanced dramaturgy are absent. But others have already entered this field – for example, Evgeny Savin (Krasava) in the issue about female referees. Yes, the situation is slightly different, but the issues are generally the same.
Frame from the series “Home Field” (2022)
more.tv
The decline in persuasion is noticeable almost from the outset. Even her first scene with Volkova, which made her history, is based entirely on a stylized model. Here comes the analysis of the game with three experts – two actively chattering men and a quiet woman in the corner. But still, when there is a chance to get a word from Volkova, she immediately “lifts” her opponents with devastating analytics. And in the opposition there are no special disagreements and attempts to defend their views. Although everyone who has watched Match TV programs at least once knows that the game has completely different rules – and no one, especially a woman, gives up their position among the experts so easily. But there are a lot of such draws in the first two episodes.
All this is reminiscent of a feminist agenda game in which a superficial acquaintance with the material can be seen from a mile away. This is such a conditional import substitution, without a real immersion in the context, in fact – a perpetual borrowing. And the output is not an original player, just a substitute who has a place on the bench.
For director Felix Umarov, this is a full-length debut: before that, he shot the short film Eden, in which the characters under the influence of hallucinogens end up in the Garden of Eden without a word. The lack of practice in working with dialogues is especially felt in the speeches of the heroes of the “Home Court”, built in a short passage: one serves, the second immediately, plays together, throws. And for you there is no plot of the game and at least some interesting verbal dribbling.
Frame from the series “Home Field” (2022)
more.tv
In football, the halftime usually goes to build up (the last example of which is the last Champions League final), and perhaps the start of Home is also an attempt to gain strength for the final game. But in this case, this is a losing tactic beforehand because unlike football fans who are ready to show patience to their idols, content-hungry viewers cannot wait long for a miracle to happen before their eyes. Also, no overtime is provided: There are eight announced episodes that you should have time to make the audience fall in love with your project.
The producers of the series, Ilya Stewart and Murad Osmann, who previously worked successfully, for example, with Kirill Serebrennikov, were successful. But it’s an open question whether common television outlets can play the first trick.
Source: Gazeta
Barbara Dickson is a seasoned writer for “Social Bites”. She keeps readers informed on the latest news and trends, providing in-depth coverage and analysis on a variety of topics.