Director: Alexander Danilov
A lonely girl and an injured horse find in each other the one thing neither expected to need again: trust. My Favorite Champion is a 2024 Russian family drama built around that bond, and it wears its warmth openly rather than saving it for a final act.
What is My Favorite Champion about?
Set on the edge of a quiet countryside stable, the story follows a young girl who has withdrawn from the people around her after a difficult stretch at home. She's drawn instead to a horse the adults have already written off as too damaged and too old to be worth the effort. What starts as stubbornness on both sides slowly turns into something closer to partnership, as she learns to read the animal's moods and it, in turn, responds to a patience nobody else has offered it. Around them, a small circle of family and stable hands is forced to reconsider what they thought they knew about second chances, for the horse and for the girl. Director Alexander Danilov keeps the camera close to faces and hooves alike, letting small gestures carry the emotional weight rather than dramatic incident. Vasilisa Korostyshevskaya anchors the film as the girl, with Ekaterina Vilkova and Egor Beroev filling out the adult world she's trying to keep at arm's length.
Cast & crew
Vasilisa Korostyshevskaya carries most scenes on quiet reaction rather than dialogue, opposite Ekaterina Vilkova and Lyudmila Artemeva as the grown-ups circling her. Egor Beroev and Vitaliy Khaev round out a supporting cast that treats the countryside setting as a real place rather than backdrop.
Context & significance
My Favorite Champion belongs to a familiar strand of family filmmaking, the child-and-animal story, but it leans on Russian rural life for texture instead of a generic setting. Released in 2024, it sits comfortably alongside other titles built for family viewing rather than festival attention, favoring a gentle pace and a clear emotional arc over plot twists.
Where & how to watch
My Favorite Champion streams on K-Time with a Persian dub and Persian subtitles, so it plays comfortably for viewers who prefer to watch in Farsi. The film's page is free to browse; watching it requires only a free K-Time account login, inside an interface built around Farsi navigation for the diaspora audience.