The Khodorkovsky case

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Movie
German title The Khodorkovsky case
Original title Khodorkovsky
Country of production Germany
Publishing year 2008-2011
length 116 minutes
Age rating FSK 12, no public holidays
Rod
Director Cyril Tuschi
script Cyril Tuschi
production Cyril Tuschi (LALA Films Berlin)
camera Eugen Schlegel , Cyril Tuschi , Peter Dörfler , Franz Koch
cut Salome Machaidze
Cyril Tuschi
occupation

Jean-Marc Barr : Speaker

The Khodorkovsky case is a German documentary film by director Cyril Tuschi about the life of Mikhail Khodorkovsky . The film premiered at the Berlinale in February 2011 and was shown four times.

background

The film describes the convicted entrepreneur and former Russian oligarch , as well as the current multimillionaire Mikhail Khodorkovsky . Tuschi interviewed more than 70 contemporary witnesses , the interview material comprised 180 hours. According to Tuschi, the film cost 400,000 euros and was financed by three German state film subsidies ( Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg , Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung , Deutscher Filmförderfonds ) and by Bavarian Broadcasting . It enables detailed insights into Russian society and international diplomacy. Tuschi worked on it for five years.

According to Tuschi, the film material including the computer was stolen twice: in Bali , where he made the final cut of the film, and a few weeks later, shortly before the start of the Berlinale, from his office. In the second theft, a notebook with the final version of the film was stolen. This is another reason why the film was eagerly awaited at the Berlinale.

content of the film

Tuschi interviewed 70 contemporary witnesses, including Khodorkovsky's mother and the former German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer (Greens). He shot animated scenes, such as to illustrate Khodorkovsky's arrest, and used news material from CNN . The film is about the question of how it came about that one of the richest men in the world (founder of the first Russian private bank Menatep and owner of the oil company Yukos ) was arrested in his private plane in 2003, in a Siberian prison near the border with China arrested and sentenced to 14 years imprisonment for tax evasion, scheduled fraud, money laundering and embezzlement in two trials .

Khodorkovsky earned most of a fortune in the 1990s that totaled about $ 8 billion in 2003. At the beginning of the new millennium, rumors increased that he wanted to sell Yukos shares in the USA. He was also in the process of "transforming his image of the nefarious oligarch into the reputation of a benefactor and promoter of culture".

A few days before his arrest, he raised allegations of corruption against the then Russian President Vladimir Putin in a live televised meeting in front of the super-rich.

A few days before Khodorkovsky, Platon Lebedev was arrested, his right-hand man with Yukos. Khodorkovsky was in the United States at the time . The film deals with questions such as: Why did he return when he too faced arrest? Why didn't he pay the taxes the state - arbitrarily - demanded of him? Confidants of the detainee sometimes express idiosyncrasies in front of the camera. A confidante says that Khodorkovsky is in prison so that, after serving his sentence, he will appear as a refined candidate, as a candidate for the presidency on behalf of the people.

Tuschi managed to speak to Khodorkovsky in his glass cage during the trial in Moscow. That was for private purposes, he told the authorities. Khodorkovsky spoke relaxed and with amusement and irony.

reception

criticism

The film service was positive about the work of Tuschi, who told the story with the "necessary detail" and kept himself discreetly in the background. The result is "a committed and overall factual documentary that is also a political thriller". The film offers "a profound and multi-faceted interior view of the corrupt empire (Kerstin Holm), which has arisen from the bankruptcy estate of the USSR since 1991."

“[…] The polyphony enables us, at least in the beginning, to empathize and think about the case in an inner-Russian perspective that deviates considerably from ours, right up to the end of the film, as it were counter to its arc of tension. So Khodorkovsky was sitting across from us in the glass case, but we were looking at a multicolored mosaic. "

- Critic.de

Awards

From the German Film and Media Review received Khodorkovsky rated "particularly valuable". At the 27th International Documentary Film Festival in Munich, the film received the 2011 International Documentary Film Prize.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The Khodorkovsky case film data sheet of the Berlinale, accessed on March 26, 2011.
  2. ↑ Khodorkovsky portrait in the Berlinale cinema: Who is this man? In: taz.de from February 14, 2011.
  3. ↑ Documentary filmmaker Cyril Tuschi: Khodorkovsky has an unearthly aura Interview with Cyril Tuschi In: Spiegel Online from February 14, 2011.
  4. ↑ The Khodorkovsky case ( Memento from December 24, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  5. ↑ German film about Khodorkovsky shrouded in controversy at Deutsche Welle (English)
  6. ↑ Philipp Holstein: “Enigmatic Man from Siberia” In: Rheinische Post, February 15, 2011 page A7
  7. ↑ T. Schmitz: Berlinale 2011: Khodorkowsky Hart und emotional In: Sueddeutsche.de, February 15, 2011
  8. ↑ B. Schweizerhof: [1]
  9. ^ Rüdiger Suchsland: The Khodorkovsky case at film-dienst, November 2011.
  10. ↑ Maurice Lahde: Der Fall Chodorkowski Filmkritik on Critic.de, January 31, 2013, accessed on October 6, 2013.
  11. ^ The Khodorkovsky case ( memento of December 24, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) at the German Film and Media Rating, accessed on October 6, 2013.
  12. ↑ International Documentary Film Prize German director honored for Khodorkovsky documentary In: Hamburger Abendblatt, October 7, 2013, accessed on October 6, 2013.