The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Mäki

The sporting record reveals that Finnish boxer Olli Maki took a tilt at the world featherweight title against long-unbeaten American champion Davey Moore on 17 August 1962. But in this 16mm monochrome gem, up-and-coming director Juho Kuosmanen reveals the other reasons why this was the happiest day in the life of a 25-year-old baker (Jarkko Lahti) who juggled training with an exhausting PR schedule organised by his demanding manager Elis Ask (Eero Milonoff) and the blossoming of his romance with small-town teacher Raija Janka (Oona Airola). The actors excel in conveying the disparate pressures each faced in the run-up to the bout in Helsinki's Olympic Stadium. But such is the deftness of the production design and the exquisite sheen of the photography that this acute insight into sporting sacrifice, the price of celebrity, the appeal of the underdog and the hierarchical nature of Finnish society on the cusp of the Swinging Sixties also has an unforced nouvelle vague feel that places it in the front rank of boxing pictures.