THE LAST FIGHT is a fly-on-the-wall doc that accesses the training camp and publicity tours of veteran MMA fighter Marloes Coenen's as she gradually comes to terms with the fact that her highly successful, trailblazing career is coming to an end.
Director Victor Vroegindeweij has a conservative approach to doc form that is replicated in another Raindance Festival release, TEAM KHAN. It's the classic sporting doc shape, taking the audience through the highs and lows of a particular period of a sportstar's career. However, within this conservative approach, the film pulls a few narrative surprises. Late in the film it reveals itself to be less a study of the highs and lows of this well-respected Dutch MMA champion, but rather an examination of the crippling doubts and clouded judgement that creeps into a sports professional at the end of their career, when they can no longer trust their body to respond to the demands being placed on it.
Central to the film is the relationship between Coenen and her long-time training Martijn de Jong. On first encounter these two people clearly have an affectionate professional bond with one another, built up over years of successful work together. Yet over the course of the doc this relationship erodes as Coenen begins to feel her age and de Jong stubbornly persists in pushing her the way he always has. When the two part company and Coenen puts her faith in a 'mental coach' he apparently has read her final glory in the stars, you know that things aren't going to end well.
I had to admire the sheer bloody-minded stubbornness of this doc, which refused to let up on its narrative arc of failure being snatched from the jaws of unparalleled success. Even if you are not a fan of the sport, it is a compelling story and one that deserves a larger audience.
Director Victor Vroegindeweij has a conservative approach to doc form that is replicated in another Raindance Festival release, TEAM KHAN. It's the classic sporting doc shape, taking the audience through the highs and lows of a particular period of a sportstar's career. However, within this conservative approach, the film pulls a few narrative surprises. Late in the film it reveals itself to be less a study of the highs and lows of this well-respected Dutch MMA champion, but rather an examination of the crippling doubts and clouded judgement that creeps into a sports professional at the end of their career, when they can no longer trust their body to respond to the demands being placed on it.
Central to the film is the relationship between Coenen and her long-time training Martijn de Jong. On first encounter these two people clearly have an affectionate professional bond with one another, built up over years of successful work together. Yet over the course of the doc this relationship erodes as Coenen begins to feel her age and de Jong stubbornly persists in pushing her the way he always has. When the two part company and Coenen puts her faith in a 'mental coach' he apparently has read her final glory in the stars, you know that things aren't going to end well.
I had to admire the sheer bloody-minded stubbornness of this doc, which refused to let up on its narrative arc of failure being snatched from the jaws of unparalleled success. Even if you are not a fan of the sport, it is a compelling story and one that deserves a larger audience.
