The Magnitsky Act. Behind the Scenes (2016)

Original title

The Magnitsky Act: Behind the Scenes

Directed by

Andrei Nekrasov

Genre

documentary film

Country

Denmark, Finland, Norway

Runtime

2h 27m

Rating

6.3 of 10 from 3 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A documentary about the death of Russian tax accountant Sergei Magnitsky in a Moscow prison. It looks at the original story of his arrest and death, then presents an alternative version of events that questions the official narrative.

investigativetensecontroversialinformationalgrittysoberingprovocativesuspenseful

What happens

The Magnitsky Act – Behind the Scenes is a 2016 film directed by Andrei Nekrasov, concerning the 2009 death in a Moscow prison cell, after 11 months in police custody, of 37-year-old Russian tax accountant Sergei Magnitsky. In 2007, Magnitsky was hired by American-born British financier Bill Browder to investigate the government's seizure of three of Browder's Russian subsidiaries. Discovering evidence of embezzlement, Magnitsky implicated two senior police officers in a tax rebate scam that used shell corporations plundered from Browder's holdings to defraud the Russian treasury of $230 million. Subordinates of those officials then arrested Magnitsky and charged him with the very crime he had exposed. However, after initially presenting the widely accepted story about murdering of Magnitsky in prison by guards on the orders from Russian state officials, the movie suggested an alternative version of the event that, as The Guardian relates, "Magnitsky was not beaten while in police custody, and that he did not make any specific allegations against individuals in his testimony to Russian authorities." By suggesting that Magnitsky was, as paraphrased by The New York Times, "an accomplice rather than a victim," the film has provoked international controversy. The film takes its title from the Magnitsky Act, a bipartisan bill passed by the U.S. Congress and signed by President Barack Obama in 2012, designed to punish Russian officials allegedly responsible for Magnitsky's death. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

More like this

• Dugma: The Button (2016)
• A Conspiracy of Faith (2016)
• Defekte donationer (2016)
• Dream Empire (2016)
• Beyond the Pale (2016)
• Shadow World (2016)
• Taxi Tbilisi (2016)
• I remember when I die (2016)