The Road to “Untouchable”: A Fencing Film Project

Adam Lapallo

For almost 20 years, I’ve known two things: movies are my life, and fencing runs in my veins.

So naturally, it’s frustrating to me how rarely they intersect. I can’t say how sick I am of being asked if I fence “like in The Parent Trap?” No, not like that at all. Hollywood has simply never been able to capture the thrill and laser-sharp focus of a true fencing bout, or the euphoric surge of a hard-earned win. I waited years for some savvy filmmaker to depict the kind of fencing that has played such a pivotal role in my life, and when none did, I decided to do it myself and wrote a screenplay called Untouchable.

Untouchable was inspired by the closing of my childhood fencing club during COVID-19. It was a coping mechanism and eulogy to my time in fencing (that has, thankfully, found a second life through this film). It tells the story of Roxanne, an aging foilist saddled with heavy responsibility after the passing of her coach, and Miles, her teenaged protégé desperate to find purpose in the NCAA. The feature-length script has garnered acclaim from organizations such as Final Draft and the Austin Film Festival.

Last year, after much reflection and preparation, I took the next step in getting my movie made with an 18-minute proof-of-concept short film. Concept shorts are a useful tool for filmmakers seeking funding for their first feature. After all, how better to show the film industry what they’ve been missing out on than to, well, show them?

The production of the Untouchable short changed me in ways I’m still processing. I had directed plenty of short films before, but this was by far the biggest, most ambitious and most personal project of my career. I sent out a cry for help via a crowdfunding campaign and received a staggering $18,000 in donations from my community. With a budget secured and location found at Blue Ridge Fencing Center in Charlottesville, VA, my movie was on its way.

The biggest hurdle for making a great fencing movie is casting. Do you teach an actor how to fence? A fencer how to act? Or do you search for stunt doubles? My concerns were alleviated by Alliance Fencing Academy’s Simon Lioznyansky (credited by his stage name, Simon Val), found among the 800 actors worldwide who responded to our casting call. In addition to his world-class skill, Simon is an award-winning actor who brought a natural charisma to the role of Miles. He was uniquely connected to his character because, at 17 years old, he was applying to to NCAA fencing teams at the time of filming (he has since started his Division 1 journey at the University of Pennsylvania and ranks first in the world in junior epee). Simon’s foil (pun intended?) emerged in Brooklyn-based actor and Boston Fencing Club alum Michelle Principi, who delivered a grounded and subtly intense performance as Roxanne.

Rounding-out the cast was local actor Kevin Lee Rosenblum in a truly sinister turn as Miles’s withholding father, and a breakout performance by UK-based actor Lily Mummery as Miles’s rival, Jillian. Though she had little fencing experience, Lily trained relentlessly to prepare for the role and performed her own stunts. The ensemble concluded with local actors and the students of Blue Ridge Fencing Center as extras in the film’s tournament scene.

I can honestly say that the three days spent shooting at BRFC were the best of my life. The cast and crew clicked, the energy on set buzzed and slowly but surely, the world I knew came to life on the monitors. We left the set each night with the feeling we were part of something special. Cinematizing the fencing bouts was a particularly interesting challenge; after all, there were so few reference films to model them on. Director of Photography Emily Marquet (currently earning her Master’s in Cinematography at the American Film Institute) created a visual cocktail of sweeping wide shots, quick close-ups and fast pans to channel the intensity and intimacy of the sport.

The action was a blend of choreography and improvised fencing between high-level athletes. We wanted the movement to feel somewhere between a dance and a brawl. Audio engineer Paul Bruski of In Your Ear Studios heightened the adrenaline with rugged sound design full of athletes breathing, fleshy hits and ringing blades, while composer Casey Lenhardt crafted an original score full of experimental elements to remind the audience they were seeing something new. All these filmmakers were elevated by hauntingly human performances by Michelle, Simon, Kevin and Lily. The film concluded post-production in April 2025, at which point we screened it privately for friends, family, cast, crew and supporters in Richmond, VA.

So, what happens next? Untouchable is set to premiere this December at the Paladino D’Oro Film Festival in Palermo, Sicily, the oldest sports film festival in the world. I have screened it at two local fencing clubs, Cardinal Fencing Academy and BRFC. Both screenings concluded with a stimulating Q&A with the club members about competition and mental health in fencing. I hope to continue using this film as a conversation starter to guide young athletes through the emotional complexities of fencing. My producer and I have assembled a pitch deck, budget proposal and other tools to help us secure enough investors to reunite the Untouchable team and produce the full-feature screenplay. Film has a long history of broadening the audience of the things it depicts (look up chess board sales following the release of The Queen’s Gambit on Netflix). The Untouchable feature could have a much wider theatrical and streaming release than the short, to show a much bigger audience the thrills of Olympic-style fencing, and encourage them to look up their local fencing club for a lesson. It might just be the best thing they ever do.