Underplayed Gems

Putin's Witnesses (2018)

Putin's Witnesses poster
Original title
Свидетели Путина
Directed by
Vitaly Mansky
Genre
documentary film
Country
Czech Republic, Latvia, Switzerland
Runtime
1h 42m
Rating
6.3 of 10 from 43 voters
Elsewhere
IMDb
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How it feels

The filmmaker looks back at his earlier documentary from 2000 about Vladimir Putin’s rise to power. He uses that old footage and his own past work to examine how he and other journalists became witnesses to Putin’s early presidency. The film is both a study of Putin’s first days in office and a critique of the filmmaker’s own role in documenting that moment.

introspectiveobservationalreflectiveconfessionalbehind-the-scenesarchivalpoliticalself-critical

What happens

Putins Zeugen (russisch Свидетели Путина Swideteli Putina) ist ein Dokumentarfilm von Witali Manski aus dem Jahr 2018 über den Beginn der Regierung von Wladimir Putin und zugleich eine Selbstkritik des Regisseurs an seinem Putin-Film aus dem Jahr 2000, als Putin die russische Präsidentschaftswahl gerade gewonnen hatte. Der Film feierte seine Online-Premiere am 12. Dezember 2018 bei Artdoc.Media. Er wurde anschließend in der russischen Originalfassung mit englischen Untertiteln auf diversen Filmfestspielen gezeigt, und u. a. 2018 auf dem Filmfest in Karlsbad mit dem ersten Preis als bester Dokumentarfilm ausgezeichnet. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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