Khodorkovsky

Brilliant, intriguing and riveting
This is one of the best documentary movies I have seen lately. The story of Mikhail Borisovich Khodorkovsky, the most powerful oligarch who became the most prominent prisoner and who remains a large thorn in Vladimir Putin's side is like the stuff of myth and dark age history. Yet it is the story of contemporary Russia, dexterously captured by the filmmaker Cyril Tuschi. As a close portrait of Khodorkovsky it shows a man of pride and many flaws but also a man of bold virtues. The documentary works also on a personal and microscopic level: all history and tragedy set aside it is the story of a dedicated young journalist who arrives in a country which usually does not welcome the press, armed with a camera and a notebook and who experiences all ups and downs of such a journey. Well as you can probably guess by now, I liked this documentary. But if you aim for a deeper understanding of the modern post-cold-war history and the political atmosphere in current Russia - this is the ticket.

A must-see, very interesting.
Captivating story of a fascinating individual who is still imprisoned due to Putin's vendetta today. A depiction of a story that watches more like a movie, than a documentary. Well directed, unbiased and informative.

Great for watching at home or as a class movie for educational purposes.

A Morality Tale
Depending on who you believe, Khodorkovsky was either a villainous oligarch who profited unconscionable from the great privatization spree overseen by Boris Yeltsin after the fall of the CCCP or he was an overly brave reformer who, after seeing where corruption inevitably leads, decided to spearhead a campaign to clean up Russian commercial and political life.

The facts are pretty straightforward: Yukos, the oil company he controlled, was dismembered by the Russian government on the orders of Vladimir Putin and Khodorkovsky was found guilty of crimes so poorly defined and glibly presented that even Robert Mugabe's tinpot regime would have been embarrassed by such overt political strong-arming of a private citizen. Khodorkovsky remains in a Siberian prison camp to this day because Putin deems him too dangerous to release.

The most interesting thing, for me, was watching Putin himself. If ever one had any doubts that the President of Russia is nothing more than a...

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