Legends of Sambo

Legends of Sambo
Legends of Sambo
	Film poster
Directed by	Andrey Bogatyrev (ru)
Screenplay by	Georgy Shengeliya
Produced by	Andrey Bogatyrev; Konstantin Elkin; Wolfgang Cerny; Tatyana Voronetskaya; Yelena Belova; Vitaly Smagin;
Starring	Wolfgang Cerny; Dmitry Pavlenko; Anton Vohmin; Aleksey Shevchenkov;
Cinematography	Natalya Kozhevnikova
Edited by	Aleksandr Karpov
Music by	Sergey Solovyev
Production; company	ABS Film Company
Distributed by	Russian World Vision
Release date	November 16, 2023 (Russia);
Running time	104 minutes
Country	Russia
Language	Russian
Budget	$1.6 million
Box office	$262 949

Legends of Sambo, also known as The Legend of Sambo (Russian: Легенда о самбо, romanized: Legenda o sambo) is a 2023 Russian biographical sports-drama which tells the story of the origins of the Soviet martial art Sambo.^[2]^[3]

Plot[edit]

The events take place in 1936 at the Moscow Spartakiad, where the strongest team of wrestlers was announced. Two martial arts masters collided in a decisive duel. One of them is Vasili Oshchepkov, who from an early age was involved in martial arts and studied judo with the best trainers in Japan. The other is Russo-Japanese War veteran Viktor Spiridonov (Dmitry Pavlenko), who has developed several techniques for self-defense. Both athletes are the key creators of the national wrestling called Sambo. Young and promising wrestler Anatoly Kharlampiyev is Oschepkov's disciple. Oschepkov is arrested and executed as a supposed Japanese spy. In the end Kharlampiyev is shown to continue the legacy of the Sambo movement.

Cast[edit]

Wolfgang Cerny as Vasili Oshchepkov
Dmitry Pavlenko as Viktor Spiridonov
Anton Vohmin as Anatoly Kharlampiyev
Aleksey Shevchenkov as an employee of Cheka / NKVD
Olga Stashkevich as klavdia
Pavel Abramenkov as Roma
Vyacheslav Shikhaleev as an assistant
Denis Kuznetsov as Senya
Aleksandr Davydov as Marat

Reception[edit]

Aleksei Komarov in a positive review for KinoReporter wrote - "In fact, Bogatyrev again made a kind of comic book film (previous - The Red Ghost), only now he was inspired by the traditions of constructivism, avant-garde, and the style of Soviet posters of the 1930s".^[4]

References[edit]

External links[edit]

Legends of Sambo at IMDb

[kb-1] "График премьер ЛЕГЕНДА О САМБО". KinoBusiness.

[2] "Режиссер рассказал, что фильм "Легенда о самбо" сделан в стиле конструктивизма". TASS.

[3] "Фильм «Легенда о самбо» (2023): как создавалась национальная борьба страны". Komsomolskaya Pravda.

[4] "«Легенда о самбо»: Стильный комикс, где бои на ринге – не самое главное". KinoReporter.

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