Artyom Mikhalkov's sports drama "Mr. Knockout" has started in Russian cinemas.
The screenwriters of the tape were the brothers Vladimir and Oleg Presnyakov (“Playing the victim”).
The main roles in the film were played by Viktor Khorinyak and Sergei Bezrukov, Angelina Strechina, Inga Oboldina, Evgenia Dmitrieva, Andrey Sergeev, Viktor Verzhbitsky and others also joined the cast.
The plot of the picture is based on the biography of boxer Valery Popenchenko (Viktor Khorinyak), a multiple USSR champion and two-time European champion, winner of the Tokyo Olympics.
In particular, the biopic is dedicated to the period of the athlete's formation: the beginning and development of relations with the coach Grigory Kusikyants (Sergey Bezrukov), who led Popenchenko to his first major victories.
Against the backdrop of sports ups and downs, the hero develops a romantic story - he meets and falls in love with his future wife Tatyana (Angelina Strechina).
According to the plot, Popenchenko's beloved plays a serious role in his professional growth, often becoming a stimulus to action.
So, the athlete believes that he can make a marriage proposal only when he wins the Val Barker Cup (an award for the most technical boxer in the Olympics).
The story of Popenchenko itself is not quite typical for a sports drama: in the first part of the film, the viewer watches how desperately the hero does not want to connect his life with boxing and is stubborn in every possible way when they try to attract him to this sport.
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"Mr. Knockout" was the first feature film about Valeria Popenchenko.
Artyom Mikhalkov decided to film the story of the legendary boxer after watching a documentary about the athlete and getting acquainted with his memoirs “And forever the fight ...”.
Even at the stage of preparation for writing the script, the filmmakers contacted Popenchenko's relatives - widow Tatyana Igorevna and son Maxim.
The work on the tape also included meetings of filmmakers with relatives of the athlete, at which family members talked about the boxer.
Communication with the family of the Olympic champion was carried out for three years.
Due to such close cooperation, the authors of the tape managed to reliably reproduce some episodes from the life of Popenchenko.
Relatives of the biopic looked and appreciated positively, although they drew attention to a number of inaccuracies.
“There are some differences, of course, but they are minor.
This, most likely, is not a documentary, but a feature film... Tatyana Igorevna also watched it, she liked it very much... Now young people have forgotten about their sports legends.
I think this film will be very useful for young people, first of all,” says Maxim Popenchenko.
To make the fights in the ring look more spectacular and represent some kind of "attraction" for the viewer, the creators of the biopic were going to take on the main role of a professional athlete.
According to Artyom Mikhalkov, casting for the role of Popenchenko turned out to be a “difficult task”: many actors went through filmmakers before they approved Khorinyak.
“A professional athlete will probably do good fights, but it will be difficult for him in the frame.
And miraculously, we found Viktor Khorinyak, who, by his texture, and by his temperament, and by his inner state, and by the way he is complex ... and he was engaged in boxing.
He is an energetically very strong artist.
When we began to train, we realized that we had made the right choice,” the director believes.
Filmmakers had less doubts about the actor for the role of coach Grigory Kusikyants.
According to the director, he initially knew that Sergei Bezrukov would play the best mentor Popenchenko.
“I didn’t even imagine who else could play this role so accurately, so deeply and so truly.
And, indeed, in this role you can see what is very important for me, father, ”Mikhalkov said during a press conference dedicated to the film.
Bezrukov, in turn, admitted that, due to his emotionality, he shed a tear when he read the script of the Presnyakov brothers.
The artist was engaged in boxing in childhood and periodically returns to this sport.
The actor dedicated the role of the impulsive Kusikyants to his boxing coach.
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The film took three and a half years to complete.
Filming began in 2019, but due to the coronavirus pandemic, it dragged on for two years and several months.
Most of them were conducted in Moscow and St. Petersburg.
Filmmakers filmed the scenes of Popenchenko's youth in Tashkent - this was a fundamental moment.
In reality, the youth of the future champion was held in the Uzbek SSR.
The athlete was sent to the Tashkent Suvorov School, where, under the guidance of coach Yuri Matulevich-Ilyichev, he first got acquainted with boxing.
It is from the scenes in Tashkent that Mikhalkov's picture begins - the main character and his friend Sasha rush to local competitions.
After Suvorov, the athlete entered the Leningrad Higher Border Naval School.
This period of Popenchenko's life is also shown in the film, for some scenes of that time the filmmakers received permission to shoot on a real ship of the Leningrad naval base in Kronstadt.
Work on some episodes took place in the Russian Museum, which was specially temporarily closed to visitors.
According to the plot of the film, it is there that Popenchenko meets his future wife Tatyana.
One of the central events of the picture was the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.
This sporting event was filmed entirely in Moscow.
And the work on the final battle of Popenchenko, the filmmakers say, dragged on for three weeks.
Sergei Bezrukov believes that the new sports biopic will be a good opportunity to learn about the legendary figures of Soviet sports.
According to the actor, Valery Popenchenko was a real hero, who was proud of the country and who the whole world wanted to be like.
“Popenchenko was spoken of as Gagarin, because the fame was absolutely the same all over the world as that of Gagarin.
We remember only Gagarin, but we forgot about Popenchenko, especially young people, I think they hardly know, ”Bezrukov notes.