The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Mäki
Short description
Set in Finland in the summer of 1962, this drama centres on Olli Mäki, a soft-spoken boxer from the countryside who is offered a shot at the world featherweight championship. His team moves him to Helsinki, where sponsors, journalists and his manager prepare him for the biggest night of his career. All he has to do is keep training and make the weight. Instead, he finds himself drawn to Raija, and his attention drifts away from the fight that everyone around him treats as the chance of a lifetime.
Juho Kuosmanen directed the film, his first feature, following his 2007 debut Roadmarkers and preceding Compartment No. 6. He wrote the screenplay with Mikko Myllylahti, and Jussi Rantamäki produced. Jarkko Lahti plays Olli, with Oona Airola as Raija, Eero Milonoff as his manager Elis Ask, Joanna Haartti as Laila Ask, and Esko Barquero and Elma Milonoff in further roles. Shot in black and white on a budget of about one million dollars, it was a Finnish, Swedish and German co-production.
The film drew strong notices from critics, whose rating of 7.6/10 from 56 reviews sits above the audience score on IMDb of 7.2/10 from around 5,200 votes, while on TMDB it holds 6.6/10 from 107 votes. Those figures point to a modest release that critics received more warmly than general audiences did.
What's left behind the scenes
- The film was shot entirely on 16mm black-and-white Kodak film.
- At the end of the film, the main characters, played by Jarkko Lähde and Uuna Airola, walk to the harbor and encounter an elderly man and woman. The roles of the latter were played by the real Olli Mäki and Raija Mäki.
- Elisa Aska's apartment was provided by the apartment of director Juho Kuosmanen.
- In 2011, director Juho Kuosmanen attended a play about boxer Olli Mäki at a theater in Kokkola, Finland. By chance, Mäki himself was in the audience that evening. After the performance, theater director Jarkko Lahti had his picture taken with the boxer. Kuosmanen then said that if he ever made a film about Mäki, he would cast Lahti in the leading role. Lahti took this seriously, began training in boxing, and even fought in several amateur bouts (losing each one), thereby proving that he could indeed play Mäki.
- Director Juho Kuosmanen, producer Jussi Lohijoki, and actors Jarkko Lahti and Una Airola – not to mention Olli Mäki himself, whom Lahti portrayed – all hail from the city of Kokkola.
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