The Boxer
The Boxer is a fictionalised short film portrait of Frank Engel: tenor at the Dutch National Opera and, in his other life, a boxer. Made in collaboration with the National Opera and street poet Johnny BANG Reilly. Two identities, one body, one stage.
“Amsterdam-based artist and director Ruben Van Leer’s latest film is a high-energy portrait of tenor and boxer Frank Engel, made in collaboration with the Dutch National Opera”
battle with the self as revolution
Frank Engel lives two lives that should not belong together. In one, he stands in a ring and takes and gives blows. In the other, he opens his throat and lets something vast come out. Both ask the same thing of him: to face what is inside, without flinching.
The Boxer follows Frank as he prepares to step onto the opera stage as the protagonist of Peter Grimes, Benjamin Britten's opera about an outsider under siege from the world around him. To get there, Frank must first go through himself. The ring and the stage collapse into each other. The fight is not with an opponent. It is with the part of the self that wants to stay hidden.
Created as the first film in the Dutch National Opera's You Don't Know Opera series, the film dissolves the distance between high art and raw physicality; not as contrast, but as revelation. With a propulsive poem voiced live by Johnny BANG Reilly, The Boxer moves between worlds that turn out to share the same heartbeat.
“Boxing ring and theater stage fade into one another in this dramatised impression revolving around the real-life main character, featuring a propelling text by street poet Johnny Bang Reilly.”
“The first in a series of films for ‘You Don’t Know Opera’ portrays a truly unexpected combination that flips pre-conceived notions of an opera star, and in turn opera itself, on its head.”
credits
| Direction | |
| Writer & Director | Ruben Van Leer |
| Performance | |
| Starring | Frank Engel & National Opera Choir |
| Voice | Johnny BANG Reilly |
| Camera | |
| Cinematography | Paul Özgür |
| 1st Assistant Director | Paul King |
| Camera Assistant | Paco Kumar |
| Gaffer | Koen van Bergen |
| Electrician | Jeroen Zwart |
| Music & Sound | |
| Music | Benjamin Britten, from the opera Peter Grimes |
| Performed by | Jon Vickers & Orchestra of the Royal Opera House |
| Music & Sound | Tommy Zee |
| Sound Recordist | Rens Pluym |
| Art & Styling | |
| Styling | Imruh Asha |
| Make-up & Hair | Faisa Sontodimedjo |
| Body Double | Roy Meuldijk |
| Post-Production | |
| Editing | Amber Hooijmans & Wouter van Luijn |
| Grading | Kevin Kimman |
| Production | |
| Live Producer | Yvonne Knook |
| Producers | Jelani Isaacs & Sander Brenninkmeijer |
| Production Company | New Amsterdam Film Company |
| Creative & Agency | |
| Creatives | Justin Blyth & Martin Ginsborg |
| Agency | Anomaly |
filmmaker & media-artist
