Gabe Polsky's entertaining documentary chronicles the rise, fall and struggle for personal freedom within one of the most awesome sporting dynasties ever seen - the USSR national ice hockey team.

The Cold War wasn’t just fought on borders and in diplomatic skirmishes. Sport provided a gladiatorial arena in which ideology was as important as athleticism. As the Cold War raged, the Soviet ice hockey team marched from cloistered obscurity behind the Iron Curtain to dominate the sport, putting Western powerhouse nations such as Canada and the United States to the sword. Home to some of the greatest players the sport has ever seen, the Soviet Union’s Red Army team became a key combatant in the Cold War’s propaganda battle. ‘They’re a microcosm of their society,’ US President Reagan insisted of the Soviet team and when they triumphed, as they usually did, so it seemed did communism. But when Mikhail Gorbachev's perestroika reforms began to thaw out Moscow, the struggle to dissuade their best players from the lucrative lure of the National Hockey League in America became the team's greatest ideological battle.

Featuring incredible archive footage as well as gripping interviews with the stars of the team, this fabulous documentary elevates itself well above being just another sports film, into that of a human story that transcends decades, borders and ideologies.

• The screening of Red Army on Tue 13 Oct is part of our Cinébites deal: Get 30% off any main dish in the Café/Bar with a valid cinema ticket.

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