Der Fall Chodorkowski
Synopsis
Documentary portrait of Mikhail Khodorkovsky — first a socialist Komsomol secretary, then a capitalist oligarch, finally a convict. The film traces the arc of the man who became Russia's richest man and Vladimir Putin's most inveterate opponent: a chemistry student of Jewish background, blocked from a career in the Soviet arms industry, who rises through the Communist Party youth league, founds Russia's first private bank Menatep, takes over the oil giant Yukos, accumulates a fortune of roughly USD 8 billion, supports political opposition and openly accuses Putin of Kremlin corruption — until in October 2003 a Russian special unit storms his private jet in Novosibirsk and his career ends abruptly.
Director Cyril Tuschi worked on the film for five years on a budget of roughly EUR 400,000, interviewed more than 70 contemporary witnesses (compiling 180 hours of interview material), ravelled to the Siberian penal colony where Khodorkovsky was held, and managed to interview him briefly through a glass cage during the second trial. The film weaves these interviews together with archival news material and stylised animated sequences — for which Pixable Studios delivered the 3D character, set and prop work — to depict events the camera could not reach, including the 2003 arrest and Khodorkovsky's imprisonment.
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Production Notes
The film's pre-Berlinale 2011 premiere was preceded by two break-ins at the director's office — including the theft of laptops with the 111-minute final cut shortly before the festival — events that drew international attention to the project as a real-life political thriller around its making, even before the world premiere. Pixable Studios' role centred on producing seven extended animation sequences (ranging from 20 seconds to several minutes), including 3D concept and look development, art direction, modelling of Khodorkovsky, Putin, bodyguards, OMON special police and the seized airplane, plus sets such as airplane interiors, airports, government rooms and prison cells, with full 3D animation, shading and lighting.
