The tale of a desperate young fighter in Lisbon features a soulful performance but is dogged by
boxing movie cliches
There are echoes of Ken Loach in this Portuguese drama about a young
immigrant boxer, a decent kid with no job prospects and few opportunities. Igor Regalla gives the film a heart with his disarmingly warm central performance as a young fighter from Cape Verde, a former colony. But the film’s claim to uncompromising realism is let down by a few cliched scenes that feel recycled from earlier boxing movies about plucky kids fighting for a place in the world.
The film opens with Gabriel (Regalla) in a boxing ring, dazedly absorbing ferocious blows. Why isn’t he defending himself? Flash back a few months, and he’s arriving in Lisbon to live with his aunt Alice (Mina Andala) and her son in a rundown estate of high-rise flats. Gabriel is drawn to the local boxing gym where his dad, who came to Portugal years ago, used to train, but he’s nowhere to be found.