The Khodorkovsky Case

The story told in the documentary The Khodorkovsky Case sounds like the stuff of great Hollywood thrillers. And yet what filmmaker Cyril Tuschi uncovered over five years of research is the truth. It all began with a TV appearance by Mikhail Borisovich Khodorkovsky, Russia's richest man, with President Vladimir Putin, in which Khodorkovsky indirectly accused the president of tolerating corruption in state oil companies. Khodorkovsky, founder of MENATEP, one of Russia's first private banks, later owner of the oil company JUKOS, founder of the Open Russia Foundation and supporter of the political opposition, was powerful and influential - and a thorn in the government's side for precisely that reason. In October 2003, he was arrested in his private jet by a Russian special unit and charged with tax evasion and corruption. But the Khodorkovsky case is far from over.

Cyril Tuschi was fascinated by the transformations revealed by arguably Russia's most prominent political prisoner. His professional career, which made him one of Russia's richest men in the 1990s, makes it clear time and again that Khodorkovsky is truly no innocent. Especially in his home country, many people are not well disposed towards the former oligarch. But is he really guilty of the offences that landed him in prison? Why didn't he take the opportunity to flee the country before his arrest? Why are so many interviewees still afraid to speak openly about the case?

Using a mixture of interviews, animated scenes and archive footage, Tuschi traces the case in an extremely compelling way. Time and again, the film shows itself to be of first-rate quality, not only in terms of content, but also in terms of craftsmanship. From 180 hours of footage shot in Russia, Germany, the USA and Israel, the filmmaker has edited an almost two-hour docu-thriller that traces the search for the truth with an engaging visual language. Of course, the film cannot offer the truth (completely). Too much was covered up, too much remains unclear to this day. But that does little to diminish the documentary's entertainment value.

From the opening minutes, in which Russian youths are asked what they know about Khodorkovsky, to the finale, in which Tuschi actually succeeds in conducting a brief interview with the imprisoned Khodorkovsky, the film builds up enormous tension, which is not a given for a documentary. And some nerve Tuschi seems to have actually hit. Because before the premiere at the Berlinale, his hotel room was broken into and the hard drives with the final cut were stolen. After watching the film, it is extremely difficult to believe in a coincidence.

Whether you like engaging documentaries or appreciate suspenseful political thrillers, The Khodorkovsky Case is sure to captivate you. Worth Seeing

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp