AND FINISH OF WITH SOME WORLD HISTORY : KHODORKOVSKY

I think quite a few of us have at least heard of Mikail Khordorkovsky, once up and coming businessman in Soviet Russia, now infamous convict and buzzword for civil rights campaigners. If taken at complete and utter face value, the man’s story has nothing really original about it; some big businessman who, in the face of Russia’s budding capitalist system, thought he could get away with skimming some taxes – and failed. But German filmmaker Cyril Tuschi takes a closer look at Khodorkovsky’s life story and begins to realize that there are – or surely must be – some things in this story that are not quite as they seem. You see Mikail Khodorkovsky didn’t start life off as the perfect communist – and you would think he well may have done, growing up in Soviet Russia. However this was definitely not the case, he was a member of the youth league in university. He then switched to business. He was shrewd, a born leader and businessman and over the years became one of the richest men in the world. Then, scandal broke out. A lot of people around him were arrested, others had to flee abroad. On a trip to America Khodorkovsky was informed that if were to return to Russia, he too would be arrested. He returned as scheduled, despite this knowledge. ?? ‘s reason for filming the documentary is to try and understand why Khordakovsky did this. I mean, surely the man didn’t actually choose to go to prison… Did he?... Ok, I have to admit, this is a bit of a specialist subject. I mean, documentaries in general are supposed to involve – in popular culture at any rate – animals or feats of nature. This is a strictly economics and politics kinda deal. And it may, to some, border slightly on the side of the “conspiracy theory”. But then again, it is a well-known fact that politics and business go hand in hand in the real world – even though we like to pretend it doesn’t – and this is even more the case in post-soviet Russia. There is a lot to learn here; Khordakovsky is a straightforward account of an affair that risks being oversimplified. I must stress that you don’t need any kind of “specialist knowledge” to be able to follow the documentary; but an interest in the topic will help (I studied International Relations in my stormy youth, and it has had lasting effects on my tastes and outlook on things). In my particular case I knew categorically nothing about the man or the events surrounding his arrest, I was taken in by the blurb and the time slot in the Istanbul film festival fitted my schedule. And personally, I felt I learnt a lot. Highly recommended.