Another View 2016 / Hymyilevä mies / Finland, Germany, Sweden 2016
Finland 1962. 25-year old Olli Mäki, a European amateur boxing champion, is training for the match of a lifetime for the title of world champion. As it’s the first time ever for his country, unassuming Olli is a sudden celebrity who is pressured mercilessly on all sides. Employing modesty, gentle humor, and uncommonly mature skill, newcomer Juho Kuosmanen has turned in a subtle drama that significantly enriches the boxing film genre – and it earned him a win in the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes.
Finland 1962. Twenty-five-year-old Olli Mäki, European amateur boxing champion, is training for the match of a lifetime: the world championship title. As it’s the first time ever for his country, unassuming Olli is a sudden celebrity, and the entire country is living a dream of great victory through the young athlete. Olli is under pressure from the media and his ambitious coach Elis, but around this time he meets pretty Raija and something special blossoms. Displaying humility and a delicate sense of humor, director Kuosmanen relates the uncommon story of a man who left flashy gestures behind and boxed his way to the happiest moment of his life. Nostalgia is absent from the filmmaker’s vocabulary, and despite a setting that takes us back more than 50 years, his atypical contribution to the boxing film genre leaves a refreshing and modern impression. The real Olli Mäki was famous for his unwillingness to deliver his opponent a knockout blow if it was clear he had already won the match. With similar unforced nonchalance and appealing restraint, Kuosmanen, the teller of his tale, achieved Un Certain Regard’s highest honor.
Karel Och
92 min / Color, DCP
Director Juho Kuosmanen
/ Screenplay Mikko Myllylahti, Juho Kuosmanen
/ Dir. of Photography Jani-Petteri Passi
/ Editor Jussi Rautaniemi
/ Art Director Kari Kankaanpää
/ Producer Jussi Rantamäki
/ Production Aamu Film Company Ltd
/ Coproduction One Two Films, Film Väst, Tre Vänner Produktioner
/ Cast Jarkko Lahti, Oona Airola, Eero Milonoff
/ Sales Les Films du Losange
/ Distributor Aerofilms
Juho Kuosmanen (b. 1979, Kokkola, Finland) graduated from the ELO Helsinki Film School of Aalto University in 2014. His short movies have won several awards at prominent festivals, including Cannes’ Cinéfondation and Locarno. While at school he was involved in acting and directing for the stage and he worked closely with the avant-garde opera ensemble West Coast Kokkola Opera. His feature debut The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Mäki won the competitive Un Certain Regard section at this year’s Cannes fest.
Aerofilms
Milady Horákové 383/79, 170 00, Praha 7
Czech Republic
Phone: +420 224 947 566
E-mail: [email protected]
Les Films du Losange
7/9 rue des Petites Écuries, 750 10, Paris
France
Phone: +33 144 438 710
E-mail: [email protected]
Juho Kuosmanen
Film Director
Jarkko Lahti
Actor
Ivo Andrle
Distributor
Marine Goulois
Sales Agent
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