“The most scandalous and intimate film portrait of an athlete.”
This spring, a 90-minute documentary by director Valeria Gai Germanika about the personal life and career of fighter Alexander Emelianenko will be released.
The film has reached theaters six years after filming was completed. What can we expect?
The film about Emelianenko was originally presented in 2023, but was not released due to censorship. During filming, call girls visited Alexander.
Gai Germanika, director of the TV series “School” and the film “Everyone Dies But Me,” announced the completion of filming for the documentary back in 2020: “It will be blood, fire, and love. You didn’t expect such meat from me. ‘School’ is just child’s play.” The idea to make a film about Emelianenko came from Gai Germanika’s husband, who constantly watched videos of the fighter on YouTube.
“He says to me, ‘Look! Do you like it? Look at how he communicates, what his reaction is,’” Gai Germanika recalled. “My husband drew my attention to him and said we should make a film about him. He seemed like a hero. Especially when we met a few days later and learned he was fighting Ismailov. Then we decided to prepare for the fight together. In fact, it was supposed to be the final event of the film.”
The film crew spent several weeks with Emelianenko before his fight with Magomed Ismailov in July 2020. According to Gai Germanika, Emelianenko “turned out to be a good guy” and “gave everything to the camera”: “Sasha always treated me with great respect and care. He always knew we were there and looked after us. I felt safe. There were difficult moments on set, but they didn’t affect me.”
There were indeed many difficult moments: during filming, Emelianenko had call girls visiting him, and he drank heavily, ending up in a drug rehabilitation clinic, and serving seven days in Anapa during training camp. The film’s trailer even included a clip of the fighter being arrested in a hotel room. At the time of his arrest, he was naked and said, “Stop and look at my balls.”
Gai Germanika had negotiated with Fedor Emelianenko about filming, but was turned down. However, Ramzan Kadyrov was cast in the film, and according to the director, he had a strong influence on the younger Emelianenko:
“How did Kadyrov allow himself to be filmed? He’s on good terms with Sasha. Emelianenko was training with him at the time. Ramzan Akhmatovich is the only person who could have influenced Emelianenko at all. Sasha was completely different with him: he didn’t drink and led a healthy lifestyle.”
The film premiered back in 2023 at the Shanghai International Film Festival. This is what the first poster looked like:
Maybe the English language version?
However, the documentary was not released due to censorship, and in 2025, Gai Germanika announced that if the trailer for the film garnered one million views, she would publish the full version online. Unfortunately, the trailer only garnered 100,000 views.
Last fall, the film was removed from the Message to Man festival. According to Gai Germanika, the film was initially accepted for the international competition, but was removed from the program by order of festival president Alexei Uchitel:
“Through Socratic dialogue, it was discovered that Alexei Uchitel hadn’t seen my film—he had seen my performance at International Film Week, which he didn’t like. Alexei Uchitel simply doesn’t like me, so the film was removed from the main competition.”
Gai Germanika tried to sell a film on Avito for 50 million rubles.
In 2022, Gai Germanika announced that she had put the film up for sale on Avito, although she had previously offered it to major platforms and shown it to Tina Kandelaki when she worked at Match TV—it was rejected by everyone. This is what the listing description read:
“For sale is a unique, banned film by cult director Valeria Gai Germanika. It would be a great addition to your private collection of priceless items.” MMA fighter Alexander Emelianenko is the most famous figure in Russian sports. A former world champion, the subject of numerous memes, and a troublemaker, Emelianenko lives the way he wants.
Friend Ramzan Kadyrov, a coach who doesn’t make any concessions, a white horse, a worried mother, unanswered calls to his daughter, random women, and devoted fans who want to take selfies with their idol—all temporarily distract him from the bottle. This is the most scandalous and intimate film portrait of an athlete who, at the end of his career, must face his greatest rival – himself.”
Emelianenko himself also promoted the film: “An exclusive film about me is up for sale to a private collection. As director Germanika herself says, this is her best film to date. Although this is not modest, I completely agree. The decision to sell was made after platforms were unable to upload the film due to censorship restrictions.
The entire team that worked on the film hopes that someone will buy the film with the noble goal of giving it to my fans and others and making it available on public platforms. You can find this listing on Avito or contact us directly.”
Gai Germanika set the price at 50 million rubles, and the buyer, apparently, was never found. Four years later, she reported that the film had finally been cleared for theatrical release—the premiere was scheduled for April 9.
In December 2025, “Emelianenko” won the Best Film category of the Dziga Vertov Award for Achievement in Documentary Film. The winner was determined by a vote of the Guild of Documentary Film and Television. Guild President Alexei Khanyutin called Gai Germanika’s film “the tragic story of a former champion.”
