The Hap­pi­est Day in the Life of Olli Mäki

This hand­some sec­ond fea­ture from Juho Kuos­ma­n­en is based in part on the true sto­ry of a Finnish box­er who briefly achieved nation­al celebri­ty in the 1960s fol­low­ing a World Feath­er­weight title bout. That Olli Mäki lost the biggest fight of his career to a supe­ri­or Amer­i­can oppo­nent – and in pret­ty humil­i­at­ing fash­ion at that – is of lit­tle inter­est to the direc­tor, and with good reason.

Because while The Hap­pi­est Day in the Life of Olli Mäki could quite eas­i­ly have been spun (albeit spe­cious­ly) as a rous­ing under­dog tale, it is more accu­rate­ly an account of pro­fes­sion­al sac­ri­fice made for the sake of per­son­al fulfilment.

Jarkko Lahti excels in the title role, sub­tly empha­sis­ing Mäki’s innate paci­fici­ty and skep­ti­cism while oth­ers, name­ly his impru­dent, pushy man­ag­er (Eero Milono), do their best to talk him up as a born-ready brawler. He’s seri­ous about mak­ing the step down in weight and putting in the hard yards required for such a con­test, but nev­er seems ful­ly con­vinced of his chances.

Mäki is por­trayed here as a sim­ple man, unas­sum­ing and oblig­ing, and it’s these qual­i­ties that ini­tial­ly catch the eye of Rai­ja (Oona Airo­la). The pair meet at a friend’s wed­ding and their ten­der, at times tur­bu­lent, courtship quick­ly becomes the film’s emo­tion­al rudder.

Shot in gor­geous mono­chrome 16mm by DoP Jani-Pet­teri Pas­si, this clas­si­cal­ly-styled romance serves as an intox­i­cat­ing reminder that his­toric sport­ing events – even ones prone to descend­ing into a far­ci­cal media cir­cus fuelled by blood, sweat and back­hand­ed cash bungs such as this – invari­ably have a human side to them.

Per the title, this is the sto­ry of the hap­pi­est day in the life of Olli Mäki, but it’s telling that our hero’s sal­va­tion arrives long before he steps foot into the ring. Even more so that the real-life Olli and Rai­ja Mäki make a brief appear­ance late on as an elder­ly mar­ried cou­ple – a sweet ges­ture that sums up this affect­ing, sen­ti­men­tal film.

The Hap­pi­est Day in the Life of Olli Mäki is released in cin­e­mas 21 April. Join us for a spe­cial pre­view screen­ing fea­tur­ing a Q&A with direc­tor Juho Kuos­ma­n­en on Wednes­day 19 April. Book tick­ets here.