DER GLÜCKLICHSTE TAG IM LEBEN VON OLLI MÄKI

Helsinki, 1962: the Finnish boxer Olli Mäki (Jarkko Lahti) is to fight the American world champion Davey Moore for the title. His manager Elis Ask (Eero Milonoff), himself a former boxer with money troubles, stakes everything on the promotion: press appointments, sponsors, photo calls with the star from overseas. But Olli, a brooding loner who despises the PR machine, has just fallen in love with Raija (Oona Airola) and realises that the training, the weight and the fuss interest him less than she does. “Der glücklichste Tag im Leben des Olli Mäki” (2016) by the Finn Juho Kuosmanen tells of a man who is meant to be made into a hero and would rather just be happy.

Juho Kuosmanen’s feature debut from Finland was shot on 16mm black-and-white film, which gives the sixties a grainy presentness, and combines laconic humour with melancholy – a boxing story that is really a love story. In Cannes it won the main prize of the Un Certain Regard section in 2016; at the European Film Awards it received the FIPRESCI Prize for best discovery, and in Chicago the Gold Hugo. It was shown at Around the World in 14 Films in Berlin in 2016.

Shown at the 2016 edition of Around the World in 14 Films.

All films 2016 · Film Archive