A film by Maria Kirpichenko,
Country: Russia,
Duration: 27min,
Language: Russian,
Subtitles: English,
Year: 2012
The film gives the opportunity to see several women from Russia who are engaged in boxing on the highest level of the National Women’s Boxing Team. We follow them in different places and tasks and become acquainted with their strong personalities. Women’s boxing and “traditional” Russian society seem to oppose each other but when we get closer stereotypes gradually vanish, though they remain at the formal (state) level. Main heroes of the film: Anastasia Zapolskaya (Makarova), Serafima Makarova, Lubov Pashina. The action takes place in Karelia (North of Russia), Krasnoarmeisk (boxing training camp near Moscow), Novosibirsk (Russia Women’s Boxing Championship, Siberia), Anapa (boxing training camp, South of Russia). The film is not about boxing itself but about women who dared to enter the “male domain” (going out of the corner) and still try to fit into the traditional gender roles (putting them(selves) into boxes).