IDFA Competition for Feature-Length Documentary
Germany, Israel, Austria, 2013 DCP, color, 90 min Director: Alexander Gentelev Photography: Konstantin Ovtchinnikov, Jerzy Palacz,
Avner Shahar, Vyatcheslav Satchkov, Franz Koch Screenplay: Alexander Gentelev, Viktoria Kurakova Editing: Evgeny Ruman Sound: Franz Koch, Andreas Haider Music: Paul Gallister, Willi Tokarev Narration: Alexander Gentelev Narrator: Michael Greenspan Production: Simone Baumann for Saxonia Entertainment GmbH, Sasha Klein for Sasha Klein Productions LTD, Heinrich Ambrosch for Satel Film Executive Production: Bettina Kuhn for Satel Film World Sales: Cinephil Screening Copy: Sasha Klein Productions LTD Involved TV Channels: MDR, ARTE, ORF, Yes Docu, DR TV, CBC, TSR
Putin’s Games
WORLD PREMIERE
Putins Spiele
Alexander Gentelev The 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia will be the first ever to be held in a subtropical resort. The most expensive games ever break all records when it comes to corruption and megalomania. Putin’s administration has everyone at its beck and call, from oligarchs down to the ordinary people who have to pay the Olympic bill. Both the powerful and the weak speak out in this investigative documentary, which unveils the hidden story behind Putin’s games. Government critic Garry Kasparov says that Putin’s Olympic propaganda is really all about speeding up the privatization of land in Sochi. Many inhabitants have had to make way for hotels, ski jumps and a large harbor, which were subsequently swept away by storms and landslides – the Olympic village was built on a swamp in the hottest region of Russia. To a large extent, the story of these environmentally unfriendly Olympic Games is one of threats and enormous misappropriations of money. The 45-kilometer (28-mile) road to the Olympic Village was so expensive that it might as well have been paved with gold or black caviar. Director Alexander Gentelev got to speak to many key figures, from the mayor of Sochi and corrupt contractors, senators and lobbyists to the president of the Russian National Olympic Committee.
Alexander Gentelev: The Teacher (1989-1993), History of Illness (1989-1993), The Village (1989-1993), Nomenclature. (1989-1993), The Bear (1999) Dakar( 2000), Women Trade (2001), Beslan – The Untold Story (2004), The Rise and Fall of the Russian Oligarchs (2005), Generation of Loneliness (2006), Yolki-Palki (2007), The Operation Successor (2008), Just Like Home (2009), Thieves by Law (2010), Violinists (2011), 20 Years Without USSR (2011)
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