Movie project aims to tell story of Ukraine soccer club Shakhtar during Russian invasion

TORONTO AP A film screenplay is being written about Ukrainian soccer club Shakhtar Donetsk s season during Russia s full military invasion of its home Donbas region The project with a script commissioned by writing partnership Paul Tamasy and Eric Johnson was declared Tuesday at the Toronto International Film Festival The story aims to capture a real-life underdog tale of grit heart and survival set against the backdrop of war the club noted in a joint message with the film s producers Shakhtar has been a regular in the Champions League for years reaching the quarterfinals in despite being exiled from Donetsk since when Russian-backed forces first moved into Donbas The association has since played home games in Ukraine s league and cup in cities across the country Shakhtar was top of the Ukrainian league in February when Russia launched a full invasion The soccer season was canceled and Shakhtar s international players including several from Brazil had to leave Ukraine The unit continued to play charity games around Europe despite losing selected players who were freed from their contracts by exigency rules passed by FIFA We re incredibly honored to be able to tell this story Tamasy and Johnson reported in a comment It is everything we love in a movie emotional inspiring thrilling and above all else a gripping account of the triumph of the human spirit and of the enduring strength of our majority of cherished values freedom compassion and courage Shakhtar is right now second in the Ukrainian league and will play this season in Europe s third-tier competition the Conference League AP soccer https apnews com hub soccer Source