KOZA

Peter’s known as Koza ,“The Goat”, a boxer whose greatest athletic triumphs are behind him: a one time Olympic participant representing Slovakia, he’s resolved to return to the ring to earn some money as a prize fighter. His meagre earnings from the junkyard are hardly enough to live on, let alone pay for the abortion that his girlfriend Miŝa’s planning, since she doesn’t want to have their baby. In a tour de force, with his boss as his boxing promoter, Koza scrambles from fight to fight in a three-seater VW bus – in hopes of winning a couple purses, though he himself would rather just become a dad. His body isn’t up to the beatings anymore and instead of extending his champion’s legacy his matches end in defeat. But for Koza, giving up is out of the question. The Slovak ex-boxer Peter Baláž plays himself, a fighter full of melancholy and inner strength. Director Ivan Ostrochovský’s road movie focuses on the unglamorous side of the boxing business, when the money fails to materialise and all is hardship: messy dressing rooms, torturous training sessions, physical limit experiences – in spectacular images that say much more than the few words that are uttered.