Boxer

A young man leaves communist Poland for the West wanting to be a boxer. As an immigrant he has nothing: no language, no papers, no connections. To get anywhere in the ring somebody has to want him, and that is not free. In the end he agrees to fight a fixed bout, and the decision shapes the rest of his life. Mitja Okorn directs and co-wrote the screenplay. Eryk Kulm takes the lead, with Adrianna Chlebicka, Eryk Lubos and Adam Woronowicz. It was released on Netflix on 11 September 2024. It is not the life story of a real person but a fiction drawn from the story of a Polish boxer who emigrated. A separate Polish film about the real boxer Jerzy Kulej appeared the same year and the two are confused. The subject is not the ring but migration. The boxing is the frame; the actual matter is the conditions under which a foreigner is accepted and what that acceptance costs. The fights are well staged technically and kept realistic, avoiding display. The template is familiar and the film does not hide it; the rise, the fall and the price arrive in order. Who it is for: viewers who like boxing films and Eastern European migration stories. Who it is not for: the narrative is predictable, it runs long, and the supporting characters are not given enough room.