A film about sambo is due to premiere this year ©Getty Images

A feature film about the history of sambo and its founders is scheduled for its premiere later this year.

The Legend of Sambo will be released in the autumn, according to the President of the All-Russian Sambo Federation Sergey Eliseev.

According to Russia's state news agency TASS, Eliseev said the film was part of the martial art's 85th anniversary celebrations.

Sambo was developed in the Soviet Red Army in the early 1920s to improve hand-to-hand combat abilities.

Vasili Oshchepkov and Viktor Spiridonov are considered as the main founding fathers of the sport.

Oshchepkov, a martial arts expert and intelligence officer, studied at the Kodokan Judo Institute in Tokyo which led to him developing sambo self-defence techniques.

Sambo was initially developed in the Soviet Red Army ©Getty Images
Sambo was initially developed in the Soviet Red Army ©Getty Images

He also helped introduce judo to Russia but died in jail aged just 45 after accusations that he was a Japanese spy during the Stalinist purges.

Twenty years later, in 1957, he was posthumously cleared of wrongdoing.

Spiridonov promoted a different style which blended with Oshchepkov's to form sambo.

A preview of the film has been promised at the 15th Cup of the President of the Russian Federation in Moscow.