"We were both friends and brothers." ( From the film)
A close-up portrait of oil-wrestler twins Ismail and Turan.
The Wrestling is a closer look into the life of two young professional oil-wrestlers, the twins Ismail and Turan. Their success in this ancient sport paved the way for them to move from the rural village of Akçay to Antalya. The film follows the twins' preparation for the Kırkpınar tournament, the sport's biggest competition. Malvenuti observes the wrestlers almost anthropologically – decoding the masculinity of this extremely intense and competitive sport, focusing on the bodies and sounds, somewhat reminiscent of Pialat's short film Pehlivan.
Edoardo Malvenuti was born in 1987 in Fidenza, Italy. He studied literature in Bologna, journalism in Milan and philosophy in Paris. The Wrestling (2016) is his first feature documentary.
