DISC D: Juho Kuosmanen. Finland/Germany/Sweden. 92 min. Sep 10, 5:30 pm, Scotiabank 4 Sep 12, 4:15 pm, Scotiabank 13 Sep 18, 5:45 pm, Scotiabank 3. Rating: NNNN
Kuosmanen’s impeccable, buoyant first feature upends all the conventions of the fight film genre.
It’s an anti-Rocky tale inspired by the true story of Olli Maki, a Finnish boxer who fought world featherweight champ Davey Moore in 1962 – the same Moore whose death in the ring a few months later inspired the Bob Dylan protest song.
Maki (a nuanced Jarkko Lahti) interrupts his training to pursue the girl he wants to marry (a radiant Oona Airola). This under-the-radar crowd-pleaser owes its unique look to glistening black-and-white cinema-verite-style photography that vividly recalls the 60s.
