''Legends of Sambo'', also known as ''The Legend of Sambo'' () is a 2023 Russian biographical sports-drama which tells the story of the origins of the Soviet martial art

Sambo Sambo may refer to: Places * Sambo, Angola, a commune in Tchicala Tcholohanga, Huambo Province, Angola * Sambo Creek, a village in Honduras People * Ferdy Sambo (born 1973), former Indonesian police general * Khem Sambo (1961–2011), Cambodi ...

Plot

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 Vasili Sergeyevich Oshchepkov (; January 7, 1893 - October 10, 1937) was a Russian and Soviet researcher of different types of national wrestling and martial arts. He was ranked as a Merited Master of Sports of the USSR and an Honored Coach of ...

, 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 Viktor Afanasievich Spiridonov (20 December 1882 – 9 September 1944) was a researcher of various kinds of wrestling and martial arts, a Merited Master of Sports of the USSR, and a Honored Coach of the USSR. He was one of the founders of Samb ...

(Dmitry Pavlenko), who has developed several techniques for self-defense. Both athletes are the key creators of the national wrestling called

. Young and promising wrestler

Anatoly Kharlampiyev Anatoly Arkadyevich Kharlampiyev (; 29 October 1906 – 16 April 1979), was a Russian researcher of various kinds of national wrestling and martial arts, Merited Master of Sports of the USSR, and Honored Coach of Sports of the USSR. He was one ...

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

Wolfgang Cerny Wolfgang Cerny (born 31 August 1984) is an Austrian actor and producer, best known for his roles in the German soap opera ''Storm of Love'' (2009–2010), Russian action movies ''The Red Ghost'' (2021) and ''Nuremberg (2023 film), Nuremberg'' ( ...

* Dmitry Pavlenko as

* Anton Vohmin as

Aleksey Shevchenkov Aleksey Vladimirovich Shevchenkov (; born November 2, 1974) is a Russian actor. Merited Artist of the Russian Federation Merited Artist of the Russian Federation (, ''Zasluzhenny artist Rossiyskoy Federatsii''), also known as Honored Artist ...

as an employee of

Cheka The All-Russian Extraordinary Commission ( rus, Всероссийская чрезвычайная комиссия, r=Vserossiyskaya chrezvychaynaya komissiya, p=fsʲɪrɐˈsʲijskəjə tɕrʲɪzvɨˈtɕæjnəjə kɐˈmʲisʲɪjə, links=yes), ...

NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (, ), abbreviated as NKVD (; ), was the interior ministry and secret police of the Soviet Union from 1934 to 1946. The agency was formed to succeed the Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU) se ...

* Olga Stashkevich as Klavdia * Pavel Abramenkov as Roma * Vyacheslav Shikhaleev as an assistant * Denis Kuznetsov as Senya * Aleksandr Davydov as Marat

Reception

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 Constructivism may refer to: Art and architecture * Constructivism (art), an early 20th-century artistic movement that extols art as a practice for social purposes * Constructivist architecture, an architectural movement in the Soviet Union in t ...

avant-garde In the arts and literature, the term ''avant-garde'' ( meaning or ) identifies an experimental genre or work of art, and the artist who created it, which usually is aesthetically innovative, whilst initially being ideologically unacceptable ...

, and the style of Soviet posters of the 1930s".

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, id=tt15475322, title=Legends of Sambo 2023 films 2020s Russian films 2020s Russian-language films 2020s adventure drama films 2023 biographical drama films 2020s sports drama films Russian adventure drama films Russian biographical drama films Russian sports drama films Films based on biographies Biographical films about sportspeople Adventure films based on actual events Sports films based on actual events Sport wrestling films Russian-language adventure drama films Russian-language biographical drama films Russian-language sports drama films Sambo (martial art)