Pelé takes a break during the filming of Escape to Victory – in the stadium of a Jewish team filled with Nazi flags in a Communist country in 1981 [600x900]
The movie is based loosely on a real football match that took place on 9 August 1942 at the Kiev city stadium in Nazi-occupied Ukraine, between the German team Flakelf, made up of air defense artillery football players, and the Ukrainien team Start, made up of workers of the local bread factory.
The match itself was used heavily as a propaganda tool by the Soviets - in fact, there were several peaceful matches between the Germans and the locals. According to a research done my Volodymyr Hynda, the Ukrainians won 60 matches and lost 36 matches, 15 were draws.
The stadium where the filming took place is in my hometown, Budapest, Hungary. Quite bizarrely, the stadium is the home of MTK, which is the unofficial team of the Hungarian Jews. So a Jewish stadium was decorated by Nazi flags... considering that in 1981 there were still a lot of Holocaust survivors, they probably had mixed feelings about it.
The stadium was demolished in 2014, a new one is expected to be ready by 2017.
The stadium was re-opened on October 13, 2016 and the opening match was played by the home team against Portugal's Sporting Lisbon with a score of 2: 2
Coach: 'Okay lads, so we're 4-1 down at half time with an obviously biased referee. We've got Michael Caine as a winger and Sylvester Stallone in goal.
Oh, and a rescue team has just finished the painstaking work of digging a tunnel out of this dressing room, so that we can escape this Nazi POW camp where we've been for years.
If we go out and play the second half, there's a danger that our tunnel's going to be discovered, and we'll possibly die from internment at this Nazi camp. There's absolutely no reason for us to go out and win this game, apart from a tiny misplaced sense of pride. Which given the circumstances is entirely foolish. Especially as we have Sylvester Stallone in goal.
So, what do you say, lads?'
Pele: I've got a good feeling about the second half.
![image showing Pelé takes a break during the filming of Escape to Victory – in the stadium of a Jewish team filled with Nazi flags in a Communist country in 1981 [600x900]](def7bafb-a1d8-5a82-bb7f-175b92a0ff3e.jpg)
BucksonRafferty on January 19th, 2018 at 13:57 UTC »
I thought it was just called "Victory ". Stallone and Caine starred as well.
Sumit316 on January 19th, 2018 at 14:10 UTC »
This photo is from a movie set. Here is more info - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escape_to_Victory
Context taken from this thread
The stadium was re-opened on October 13, 2016 and the opening match was played by the home team against Portugal's Sporting Lisbon with a score of 2: 2
twiggez-vous on January 19th, 2018 at 15:22 UTC »
Heavily paraphrased half time speech:
Coach: 'Okay lads, so we're 4-1 down at half time with an obviously biased referee. We've got Michael Caine as a winger and Sylvester Stallone in goal.
Oh, and a rescue team has just finished the painstaking work of digging a tunnel out of this dressing room, so that we can escape this Nazi POW camp where we've been for years.
If we go out and play the second half, there's a danger that our tunnel's going to be discovered, and we'll possibly die from internment at this Nazi camp. There's absolutely no reason for us to go out and win this game, apart from a tiny misplaced sense of pride. Which given the circumstances is entirely foolish. Especially as we have Sylvester Stallone in goal.
So, what do you say, lads?'
Pele: I've got a good feeling about the second half.
I love this movie.