Boxer

Production and year: Poland 2012 Genre: biographical, social drama Director: Tomasz Blachnicki Screenplay: Michał Godzic, Jarosław Banaszek Cast: Szymon Bobrowski, Anna Przybylska, Krzysztof Kiersznowski Medical topic: transplantology Description: "The Boxer" is not a good film. It wasn’t even released in theaters; it’s just a standard TV production from which one can’t expect much. But it touches on a very important topic—family kidney transplants. And it is inspired by the act of Przemysław Saleta, who donated one of his kidneys to his daughter Nicole in 2007. Anyone interested in the matter probably knows that Saleta’s daughter is currently awaiting a second kidney transplant. This does not change the fact, however, that the story, widely publicized by the media, helped popularize the idea of family kidney transplants in Poland. TVN even decided to release the film. The cast is quite decent by Polish standards; the portrayal of the main character—by no means glorifying him—brings to light many of the popular kickboxer’s sins. That’s about it as far as the positives go. The film drags on terribly, and many of the flashbacks included are completely unnecessary. The actors, as I mentioned, are well-known, but their acting is terrible. Only for those interested. As a point of interest, it’s worth noting that this is the second film about transplantology in recent years—alongside “Sęp”—in which Anna Przybylska played one of the leading roles. For me, it was a poor choice.