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Comeback

Cert: (adv 12A)

Dir. Max Plettau
Germany , 2007, 80 mins
Subtitles

Cast: Documentary with: Jürgen Hartenstein, Markus Kone

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The short film Boxing Paradise will be shown before this film.

You've seen Darren Aronofsky resurrect Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler. Now it's time for the real thing. Comeback is a grittily hard-hitting but likeably soft-centred fly-on-the-gym-wall portrait of Germany's former light-heavyweight champ Jürgen “The Rock” Hartenstein. It's been called “Rocky as a documentary,”, and not just because its Munich-based pugilistic protagonist lines up a bout in Philadelphia, and gets to scale those iconic museum steps at one point (displaying what one critic described as “geeky glee”.)

The heroic exploits of 2007 BBC Sports Personality of the Year Joe Calzaghe, plus the world-conquering feats of Ricky Hatton and the medal-garlanded progress of up-and-comer Amir Khan have recently rekindled the British public's on-off, long-dormant love affair with the noble art. So Comeback's arrival on our shores is nothing if not topical. We're taken behind the headlines and right into the exhausting realities of the fight game as Hartenstein tries to get his career back on track after three long years away from the ring. Toiling away in his spartan attic, or being put through his paces by trainer Markus Kone ...

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