When I think of bridge, I think of my grandmother, who played regularly with her bridge club until she died. I associate the game with a sort of 1950s housewife aesthetic, and the elderly. The whole thing feels quaint.
But according to “Dirty Tricks,” a documentary that premiered Thursday at the Hot Docs festival, bridge has a dark underbelly, full of scheming and cheating that one would perhaps expect of poker or blackjack gambling games played at underground clubs or mob gatherings, if the movies are to be believed. The film takes us into the world of high stakes bridge competitions, following Israeli prodigy Lotan Fisher as his career in the game is destroyed by a cheating accusation.