Slideshow
CITIZEN K
Must End Tuesday, February 11
WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY ALEX GIBNEY
2:40 & 7:00 ONLY
The outrageous story of cunning uber-oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky – once the wealthiest person in Russia, who amassed his $15 billion fortune in Siberian oil, only to be imprisoned by Vladimir Putin – as told by Oscar®-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney (ENRON: THE SMARTEST GUYS IN THE ROOM, TAXI TO THE DARK SIDE). “A mixture of high farce and needling legal thriller. The prolific docmaker’s most rewarding feature in several years, attaching his typically methodical research to a cheerfully slippery, charismatic human subject who, even on the side of right, is cagey in the face of investigation… A witty, close-up character study of one of [Russia’s] most intriguing players… Khodorkovsky’s colorful narrative leads into a wider brass-tacks tutorial on just what the hell is going on in Putin’s Russia today.” – Guy Lodge, Variety
Presented with support from the Richard Brick, Geri Ashur, and Sara Bershtel Fund for Social Justice Documentaries.
US/UK 2019 126 MINS. IN ENGLISH AND RUSSIAN WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES
GREENWICH ENTERTAINMENT
Reviews
“A heist film, about theft, revenge and murdered colleagues. It’s GOODFELLAS with a gulag. One of Mr. Gibney’s gifts… is to make a complicated subject not just accessible and digestible but aesthetically seductive. Here, the cinematography… sparkles, the music is not just stirring but historically appropriate… and the experts.. .are founts of information. A briskly paced primer into all things Putin, Russian and, incidentally, Khodorkovskian.”
– John Anderson, The Wall Street Journal
“Khodorkovsky has had a protean presence in Russian public life. The documentary is a densely constructed primer on Russian power and politics from the early 1990s to the present. Gibney… introduces important players in a cheeky, rapid-fire cast-of-characters montage.”
– Ben Kenigsberg, The New York Times
“Skillfully made, with a compelling story. Gibney has some remarkable footage. His choice of Russian music also complements and illuminates.”
– Nell Minow, RogerEbert.com
“A riveting political thriller. Oscar-winning documaker Alex Gibney traces the rise and fall of dissident exiled oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky in this scalding portrait of Putin’s Russia. Lucidly accessible. Khodorkovsky is a charismatic subject with a still-mischievous twinkle in his eye… a marvelously ambiguous antihero for the documentary treatment. Brisk, gripping and fascinatingly detailed.”
– David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter