Vitali Klitschko: Documentary “The Hardest Fight” draws an intimate portrait

Sky documentary
As in the ring, so in war: Vitali Klitschko up close

Vitali Klitschko looks into the camera

Vitali Klitschko, former world boxing champion and mayor of Kyiv for ten years: Giving up is not an option

© Sky

In “Klitschko: The Toughest Fight”, director Kevin Macdonald paints an intimate portrait of the former world boxing champion and mayor of Kiev defending his country.

“The first principle in life is the fight,” says Vitali Klitschko with a calm voice. His mother once had her own opinion about fighting. Boxing yes, but never against each other. Vitali and his younger brother Wladimir, they should conquer the world with their fists, but never raise them against each other.

Today, the two are fighting a much tougher battle side by side – the defense against Russia, which invaded their country more than two and a half years ago. The tragedy and severity of this battle is also etched into the face of Nadezhda Ulyanova Klitschko, as Oscar winner Kevin Macdonald shows in “Klitschko – The Hardest Fight.” But so is the pride in her sons’ will to fight. “Wladimir doesn’t eat anything sweet,” says Nadezhda, “only my Easter cake.” She smiles and cuts him a piece.

Vladimir only has a small role

In Macdonald’s documentary, Vladimir, the younger, plays a relatively small role. The focus is on Vitali, the older one. The politician. The mayor of the Ukrainian capital Kiev. A few scenes show the two together, sometimes in bombed-out cities, then side by side in an interview about their childhood, their youth, their relationship with each other, their rivalry and their love. “Vladimir achieved in no time what I had been training for for years in vain,” says Vitali, brushing away the hint of bitterness with a broad smile. You believe both of them, the underlying jealousy. And the admiration for his younger brother.

Crisis talks: Vitali and Wladimir Klitschko visit Washington

© Sky

Director Macdonald (“One Day in September”) explains what prompted him to make his film: “Like so many people around the world, I was shocked and outraged by the aggression, murder and wanton destruction caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine,” said the Scot. “I wanted to help in some way – and a documentary is the only option I have.”

Into the boxing ring and into the bunker

The Klitschko brothers agreed – and granted Macdonald and his team access to the inner workings, to the offices and the soldiers’ bases, to their families, their sons, the Mother. Vitali Klitschko’s ex-wife Natalia Yegorowa also speaks in detail, telling how politics once changed her husband, how she eventually lost him – and how sad it all made her.

Macdonald portrays his protagonist for over an hour and a half; it is a challenging piece of history that also demands a lot from the viewer. The filmmaker combines biographical information with national history, scenes from legendary boxing matches, such as the bloody defeat against Lennox Lewis, with visits to the front. We go into the boxing ring and the bunkers, to the negotiating table and into the makeshift canteen of a devastated troop of soldiers.

Vitali Klitschko: Giving up is not an option

Macdonald doesn’t sugarcoat anything here, holds back on any kind of message, documents rather than commentates. That is the strength of this film. The scenes of the huge cut in the eyebrow that Lennox Lewis gave the staggering Klitschko in 2003 in “Clash of the Titans” may be harsh. They are nothing compared to the hail of bombs in the cities, the sight of destroyed houses and the accusing tears of a woman who lost her relatives in an attack – because the bunker door wouldn’t open.

Mayor Klitschko comforts a woman who lost her relatives in a Russian attack

© Sky

What can become a kind of tinnitus in the flood of news that one may try to suppress, here becomes a personal story whose significant weight is hard to escape. “Klitschko – The Hardest Fight” is the German title, the English original title is almost even more accurate: “More than a Fight”, because that is what it obviously is: More than a fight. One that Klitschko is fighting, like his boxing duels: giving up is not an option.

From 13 September on Sky and Wow

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