Penza, 11 January 2018. PenzaNews. Anton Megerdichev, director of Russian film "The Upward Movement" ("Dvizhenie Vverkh"), responded to criticism of Alexandra Ovchinnikova, who was born in Kuznetsk of the Penza region, and Evgenia Kondrashina – widows of basketball player Alexander Belov and coach Vladimir Kondrashin – who opposed the distortion of historical facts in the film.

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"Not a single person who was involved in filming of 'The Upward Movement' had a goal to offend or insult anyone... On the contrary, they wanted to elevate and make team players heroes. They did their best to get in contact with relatives," he commented the conflict to RBC.

Anton Megerdichev explained that he had talked to Alexandra Ovchinnikova and Evgenia Kondrashina several times when the shooting process had been in progress and he thought "they had agreed on something".

The director admitted that the creators of the picture "had allowed themselves to change the time and place of the events" because when shooting a blockbuster it is necessary to create a story that can completely capture the viewer within two hours.

Previously, Alexandra Ovchinnikova said that she did not like the way her husband was shown.

"There is no truth in the film except for Munich and the three seconds thanks to which our team won [over US national team at the Olympic Games in 1972]. All the rest is fiction. I really don't like the way the film shows Sasha Belov. There he is a terminally ill man who gives his life for sports, but in reality Sasha was very buoyant, he wanted to live in sport," she said to Meduza.

Commenting on the love line in the film, the widow noted that "this happened not in 1972".

"Sasha and I met much later. That year Sasha had no bride, and women's basketball was not introduced at that Olympic Games," the native of Kuznetsk explained.