URBANA — The director of "Khodorkovsky: How the Richest Man in Russia Became its Most Famous Prisoner" will visit the University of Illinois at 4 p.m. Monday to screen the movie.
The screening with Cyril Tuschi, presented by the UI's Russian, East European and Eurasian Center, will be in Lincoln Hall Room 1090, 702 S. Wright St., U. It is free and open to the public.
The film explores the rise and fall of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, one of Russia's wealthy elites, who became a high-profile political prisoner. Khodorkovsky was officially jailed on tax and embezzlement charges, but his supporters claim his only crime was challenging Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
Tuschi tells Khodorkovsky's story and delves into the accusations of unbridled corruption in Russian politics. Stolen twice from the filmmaker's office before its Berlin premiere, "Khodorkovsky" is investigative journalism, a political thriller and an unflinching look at the state of the still-infant capitalist Russia.
Tuschi was born in Frankfurt, Germany. After studying philosophy in the United States in the late 1980s, he opened a nightclub and worked at the state theater Stuttgart.
In 1992, his first short film, "Frankfurt at the Seaside" ("Frankfurt am Meer"), was invited to several festivals in Germany. He then enrolled at the Film Academy Baden Wuerttemberg. After creating other award-winning films, Tuschi focused his company, Lala Films, on script development and international co-productions.
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