Gipsy Queen

A Romani single mother enters the boxing ring at a classic Hamburg diner in order to save her family and get her revenge on life.

Ali constantly pulls double shifts; proud as a lioness, she never complains. When she loses her cleaning job and her daughter winds up in trouble, her life crumbles. During a stint as a busboy at Ritze, an iconic bar on the Reeperbahn sporting a boxing club in the basement, the owner realises that Ali knows her way around a punching ball and offers her a chance at a better life. Hüseyin Tabak (The Legend of the Ugly King, GFF 2018) captures both the hard punches and a hard world in this combination of gritty boxing flick and harrowing drama. Alina Serban is a knockout in the lead role.

• Camilla Larsson