Referee in basketball hoops- what’s the truth

The viral video is from the Soviet-era Russian film “Eighth World Wonder” of 1981.

A video of a basketball match is going viral on the internet with users claiming that it shows a match between France and Russia. The scenes appear to show female basketball players competing in a match. The camera focuses on a tall player in a red shirt throwing a referee in the basket after he recorded several violations on her team. This receives a thunderous response from the crowd. While the referee tried to get out of the basket.

The caption of the video states “In this match between the women’s basketball teams of Russia and France, the referee’s wrong penalty angered the high center forward of the Russian women team. In a fit of anger, she lifted the referee to let him sit in the basket, pointed at the referee sitting in the basket”.

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The same video is widely shared on Facebook as well.

Fact Check- 

A Google reverse image search using the key frames from the viral video led us to a website which contained a movie named восьмое чудо света (The Eighth World Wonder) with the visuals from the viral video. 

A YouTube channel is found carrying the full movie with title in Russian language. At 33:36 minutes timestamp of the video, the person in the role of female basketball player can be seen throwing the referee in the basketball hoops. 

Further search revealed that it was a comedy film named The Eighth Wonder of the World released in 1981. The plot of the film revolved around Soviet basketball players competing in international competitions for the Hera Cup. Samson Samsonov directed the film, which was written by Vladimir Kapitanovsky. It starred several well-known actors, including Liya Akhedzhakova and Tatyana Kravchenko.

Conclusion- 

Fact Crescendo found the claim made along with the viral video to be False. The viral video is from the Soviet-era Russian film Eighth World Wonder of 1981. Not a real incident.