A biopic celebrating small pleasures

FINNISH boxer Olli Mäki is the subject of The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Mäki, which follows Mäki's two weeks leading up to his World Championship bout against America's reigning champion Davey Moore.

Mäki's happiest day was not, however, winning that featherweight title on Aug 17, 1962 in Finland. Mäki, played here by Jarkko Lahti, has fallen in love. He is in Helsinki, training, glad-handing the sponsors, pandering to the press and bearing the hopes of the nation, yet, the heart and mind of this ambivalent hero are far away, back in his rural hometown with his schoolteacher sweetheart Raija (Oona Airola).

Mäki is no Raging Bull but "the Baker of Kokkola", a modest man.