Russia (bbabo.net), - On Defender of the Fatherland Day, the sports drama "Mr. Knockout" is released - the second full-length feature film by Artyom Mikhalkov. The hero is the legendary Soviet boxer Valery Popenchenko, whom Mohammed Ali dreamed of fighting and who was called the "clumsy boxing genius". The key word here is "genius". The life of the famous athlete ended tragically and in many ways mysteriously. Artem Mikhalkov left this story to documentary filmmakers and made an epic movie about victory.

Artem, you made a lot of documentaries, they were about the history of the Caribbean Crisis, the Red Arrow, or the Black Prince submarine. It was as if sport was not in the zone of your attention ...

Artem Mikhalkov: Nevertheless, I play hockey at an amateur level, I run skiing. Another thing is that during the work on "Mr. Knockout", which lasted three and a half years, my training faded into the background. The shooting itself was not easy, I had to face many unexpected circumstances. It's a miracle that they did it, and I'm absolutely happy that the film is finally released.

Why did you choose Valery Popenchenko as a hero from the constellation of legendary Soviet athletes?

Artem Mikhalkov: Once I saw a documentary about him and got interested. Then I accidentally stumbled upon Popenchenko's autobiographical book "And Forever Fight". It pulled me in like a real movie. I thought: did no one shoot about such a man, a legend of feature films? In addition, we have not filmed about boxing for a long time. I contacted the screenwriters, the Presnyakov brothers, whom I have known for a long time. They prepared an essay about Popenchenko, I realized that we were looking in the same direction. Thus began our work on the project.

Did the boxer's widow Tatyana Igorevna and his son Maxim immediately give the go-ahead? We know how intractable heirs can be.

Artem Mikhalkov: We are very grateful to the Popenchenko family - they supported us, we met, discussed: there is a life that is in books, but there are living, personal stories. Inspired by photographs from the family archive, memories. Tatyana Igorevna kept his boxing gloves, sports uniform ...

Popenchenko died when his son Maxim was 7 years old. To what extent does the character of your film match the image of the father that remains in the memory of the son?

Artem Mikhalkov: We didn't talk to him about it. He understands that we were shooting not a documentary, but a feature film, based on real facts, but also with a certain amount of fiction and plot moves to enhance the story. Maxim, by the way, liked the film, and for us it is very valuable.

Maybe this is a purely female question, but I don’t combine in your hero: a thin person, a smart girl who knows several languages, is fond of painting and literature, writes poetry, and a rude scuffle, boxing.

Artem Mikhalkov: You are wrong. There is some magic in boxing. Tough rivalry between the two in the ring, the hot empathy of the fans - these are very cool sensations. And we wanted to convey them on the screen. To be honest, it never occurred to us how difficult and energy-intensive it would be to shoot fights. In films about team sports, entertainment is easier to achieve, and in boxing, all punches, all combinations are more or less similar. How to make an expressive dramaturgy of duels out of this? We have used a unique, difficult-to-stage shooting technology, I hope the viewer will appreciate it.

Wasn't it easier to cast a real boxer in the lead role?

Artem Mikhalkov: At first, we thought so: a professional athlete would look more organic. But the movie is not only about collisions in the ring, so an actor was still needed. Miraculously, they found Viktor Khorinyak, who came up in all respects: both in texture, and in temperament, and in internal state. Energetically very strong artist. In addition, he was engaged in boxing and in the scenes of fights he boxed himself, did all the bundles, combinations. Thanks to his inner strength, we managed to film the final fights. Not everyone would have coped with the most powerful load, when the duel was recorded literally by millimeters for three weeks.

The famous mentor of your hero in the film was played by Sergei Bezrukov. And, to be honest, I was surprised that he, too, albeit amateurishly, is engaged in boxing.

Artem Mikhalkov: Yes, he was engaged and understands the specifics of this sport. Sergei Vitalievich is a great artist. I can’t even imagine who else could play Grigory Kusikyants so deeply and accurately. A coach who was objectionable to many and who was able to lead his ward to great victories, who did not correspond to traditional ideas about a boxer. Bezrukov has both temperament and character for this. Bezrukov is a man of infinite energy, where he gets this energy, I can’t understand. But he is so charged with life, so easily immersed in history, in the role. And then it turned out that he also had a boxing coach, whom he called by his patronymic - Grigoryich. Like Popenchenko of his coach, - Filippych ...Why didn't they tell the story of the legendary boxer until the tragic and mysterious ending?

Artem Mikhalkov: It is victory that is important for spectator cinema - this is required by the genre. In this sense, we artistically "thought out" the final battle a little, made it even brighter.

For your debut feature film "A Bet on Love" you prefaced Nietzsche's quote "Two things a real man wants: dangers and games" as an epigraph. And what epigraph key could open "Mr. Knockout"?

Artem Mikhalkov: It doesn't matter how many knockouts you get in your life, it matters how many times you get up and move on. And this film is dear to me for the heroes who went to their victories through many difficulties and vicissitudes of life.

In boxing, all punches are more or less the same. How to make an expressive dramaturgy of duels out of this? We applied a unique shooting technology

But in the picture, the path of your hero does not look so dramatic.

Artem Mikhalkov: If we talk about sports injuries, yes, it is possible. But there are also internal injuries. Fear, pain. There is a betrayal of a friend in childhood, a father who died in the war. There are many things that prevent him from coping with himself. In the end, he defeats himself. In the last frames you catch the look of Victor from the documentary chronicle and understand: for the sake of this look, it was worth making a movie.

It seems to me that in the era of Popenchenko, sport was not as openly scandalized as it is today.

Artem Mikhalkov: Yes, now the attitude to sports is becoming completely different. A story has just happened with 15-year-old figure skater Kamila Valieva, and it seems that this is no longer a sport, but some intrigue. It's a shame that so much injustice is being done to us. But in sports, the main thing is that no one breaks us, and we still win.

Artem, you started out as a documentary filmmaker. "Mr. Knockout" is your second in-game picture. Which movie is closer to you today?

Artem Mikhalkov: Today - artistic, there is more freedom. In documentaries, you are limited by facts, archives, but here you have the right to shoot as you see and feel. There is something magical about this too.

Help

Valery Popenchenko was born in 1937 in the family of a military pilot. He started boxing at the age of 12. In 1955 he won the USSR championship among youths, in 1960 - the title of champion of the USSR in the 2nd middleweight and successfully defended it five times. In 1963, at the European Championships in Moscow, he won international competitions for the first time. At the Olympic Games in Tokyo in the fall of 1964, the athlete went to the rank of the main contender for the "gold" and won it. After this victory, he became the first at the next European Championship, after which he unexpectedly left big sport. He died in 1975 as a result of an accident, falling into a flight of stairs without a railing of the unfinished main building of MSTU. Popenchenko flew down three floors, death came instantly.

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