8-year-old Evnika Saadvakass, famous worldwide boxing prodigy, will play in the Ukrainian fantasy "Polina" directed by Olias Barco. Evnika plays herself, a girl-boxer, who helps the main character Polina in her magical adventures, and enters the ring with the character of Vasiliy Virastyuk, famous Ukrainian athlete and the world's most powerful man.
Kazakh Evnika Saadvakass became a Youtube sensation in 2013, when a video of her training scored 3.5 million views. From the age of three Evnika has been training according to the author's method of her father, a former boxer Rustam Saadvakass, and today can throw 190 punches per 30 seconds. Videos with Evnika's records watched more than 2 billion people, and among her fans are legendary boxers Mike Tyson, Roy Jones, Ronda Rose and many others. While the international boxing community waits for Evnika's first steps in professional sport, the young owner of a unique punching technique has already made the first step to acting in films.
In "Polina", which is the largest Ukraine-Belgium-France co-production in the genre of fantasy, Evnika plays one of the key children roles. Together with the main character of the film, played by 11-year-old Ukrainian Polina Pechenenko, Evnika will take an adventurous journey through magical worlds. In one of the scenes, she has to fight with a giant strong man, played by Vasiliy Virastyuk, famous Ukrainian. Boxing scene will become one of the most spectacular in the film.
The film is produced by Belgian WILD TRIBE FILMS and Ukrainian FILM.UA. Director and author of the film is Olias Barco, whose short film ‘Poubelles’ won the Golden award in the Cannes ‘Critics Week’. Director of Photography, Thierry Arbogast, is noted for his long-time collaboration with French director Luc Besson, having worked as DOP on the films ‘Leon', ‘The Fifth Element', and most recently, the international smash, ‘Lucy'. Shooting started on November 1st and release is scheduled for Autumn 2016.
