UK Premiere

The Featherweight

+ Q&A with writer and producer Steve Loff and actor and producer James Madio

Robert Kolodny’s feature directorial debut chronicles the life of the great American boxer Willie Pep.

  • Director

    Robert Kolodny

  • With

    James Madio, Ruby Wolf, Keir Gilchrist, Stephen Lang

  • USA 2023. 99min

  • Digital

In 1964, a film crew travel to Hartford, Connecticut, having been invited into the home of retired two-time featherweight world champion Guglielmo Papaleo, aka Willie Pep. They follow him as he grapples with the mundanity of life out of the spotlight, his relationship with a new wife half his age, and a resentful and troubled son. These play deciding factors in Willie’s decision to stage an audacious comeback. Kolodny’s impressive film, a fictional drama presented as a documentary, is a unique entry in this genre.