Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.In 1990, the Ukrainian kick-boxer Vitali Klitschko was invited to compete in a tournament in Palm Beach in Florida. There he discovered Coca-Cola, gazed in wonder at the abundantly stocked supermarkets — “one hundred types of cheese!” — and went on a day trip to Disneyland. On returning home, he told his father the Soviet authorities had lied to them about life in the US. His father was unimpressed, telling his son he had fallen for a classic western trick: having the wool pulled over his eyes in a city specifically constructed “to turn foreigners into agents.”Less than a year later, Klitschko swapped kick-boxing for boxing and went on to dominate the sport alongside his brother Wladimir (out of respect for their mother, they never fought each other). But after retiring in 2013, Vitali found a new calling: politics. Now the former heavyweight champion is the mayor of Kyiv, Ukrainian capital and nerve centre of the battle against Russia.More Than a Fight, directed by the Oscar-winning filmmaker Kevin Macdonald (One Day in September, Touching the Void), looks at Klitschko’s remarkable transformation from sportsman to statesman. He gets access not just to his subject but to his mother, brother, children, ex-wife and colleagues. From them we glean the many facets of Klitschko: media-savvy celebrity, gym addict, determined leader, absent father, klutz. Klitschko’s commanding physical presence (he is 6ft 7 and, at 53, retains his fighter’s physique) is undermined by his habit of falling over furniture and spewing daft soundbites such as “today not everyone can see tomorrow”, for which his staff continue to mock him.These moments of levity are welcome in a film that doesn’t shrink from the harshness of war, or the boxing ring. Macdonald has said he wants to remind the world of what Ukraine is still up against, and on this he succeeds. We see Klitschko visiting bombed-out buildings and their displaced residents, transporting supplies to soldiers on the front line and meeting foreign leaders to lobby for more arms. In between, there is archive footage from Klitschko’s boxing career, including his 2003 bout against Lennox Lewis, which was halted after Klitschko sustained a brutal cut to the eye.There is another more surprising story here, too, that of the enmity between Klitschko and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Both men are commonly seen as heroes fearlessly fighting Russian aggression, so why can’t they get along? Ego and ambition seem to play a part — Klitschko won’t rule out running against Zelenskyy, whom he accuses of autocratic tendencies — though you suspect a lid will be kept on their antagonism until the Russians have been expelled.There can be no neat ending for Macdonald’s film, which shows us the relentlessness of keeping a city functioning during a national crisis. Perhaps the most surprising lesson is how skills learned as a boxer have set Klitschko up for his present role: staying focused, maintaining morale and never being wrongfooted by the enemy.★★★★☆On Sky Documentaries on August 15 at 9pm and on Now
