Center From Heavens

Center From Heavens (Russian: Центровой из поднебесья) - Soviet feature full-length color film about sports, shot by Isaac Magiton according to the script of Vasily Aksyonov. The film premiered in March 1977.

Plot
The student basketball team, led by coach Samson Groznyak, is full of ambition, but lacks a good center. Yuri Kulich-Kulikovsky is an ordinary shepherd - he has brilliant natural data for basketball, but he is not interested in sports at all. He would never have got into the team if he had not fallen in love with singer Nina Chelnokova. The soloist of a popular ensemble with tours visits many cities, and the only chance to keep up with her is to travel around the country with a basketball team.

Gradually, the coach manages to awaken sports ambition in Yuri. After going through a series of defeats and victories, the Student team reaches the finals of the prestigious competition, where they will have to face off against American basketball players. The meeting becomes a high point for Yuri...

Cast

 * Sergey Kretov (voiced by Alexey Inzhevatov) - Yuri Kulich-Kulikovsky
 * Lyudmila Suvorkina - Nina Chelnokova
 * Boris Tsipuria (voiced by Boris Ivanov) - Samson Arkadevich Groznyak
 * Yuri Mashkin - Evgeny Kharitonchik
 * Arkady Arkanov - Slonovsky
 * Mikhail Kalinkin - the basketball player of the Student team
 * Pavel Remezov - Robert Dole
 * Aladdin Abbasov
 * The famous hockey player and coach Peter Ilyich Vorobyov starred in the episode of the film.
 * Alla Pugacheva, who at that time was not yet a celebrity, was originally considered to be the singer. And the role of a basketball shepherd was claimed by Abdulov, Yarmolnik and Kostolevsky. Later it was decided to invite a professional basketball player to the main role. So for the role of Yuri was approved by an unknown 20-year-old Sergei Kretov, a student of the Faculty of Economics of Moscow State University. MV Lomonosov, who played in the basketball team of the university. Since Pugacheva was 26 years old at the time, she was rejected “in old age” and the actress Lyudmila Suvorkina was invited to the role of Nina. From the Pugacheva in the film there were only songs performed by her.