Mazzarello (2020)

Maria Amalia Mazzarello is so calm and athletic, she’s easily mistaken for a dancer. The impression is reinforced by L’inis filmmaker Carmen Rachiteanu’s soft black and white images. But Amalia is no dancer, she’s a boxer who left Argentina for Munich, where she rose to the top of the professional circuit. At the Mariposa gym, she presses onward toward new heights thanks to the support and instruction of Kai, a gruff coach with a heart of gold. The film gracefully observes her touching relationship with her coach as well as the inspiring progress of a woman determined to battle the demons of past violence in the boxing ring. “Rocky is a love story”, Kai says to his pupil, who has never seen the film. Mazzarello, it turns out, is also a love story.