Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker Alex Gibney delivers one of his strongest explorations of global politics in considering the strange case of Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Once believed to be the wealthiest man in Russia, Mikhail Khodorkovsky rocketed to prosperity and prominence in the 1990s, served a decade in prison, and became an unlikely leader of the anti-Putin movement. In tracking Mikhail Khodorkovsky's story, Alex Gibney creates a compelling portrait of post-Soviet Russia... (Full plot summary below)
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Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker Alex Gibney delivers one of his strongest explorations of global politics in considering the strange case of Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Once believed to be the wealthiest man in Russia, Mikhail Khodorkovsky rocketed to prosperity and prominence in the 1990s, served a decade in prison, and became an unlikely leader of the anti-Putin movement. In tracking Mikhail Khodorkovsky's story, Alex Gibney creates a compelling portrait of post-Soviet Russia, a nation caught between radically divergent political models - and where fortunes can transform overnight. The collapse of the USSR ushered in an era of chaos and opportunity. With laws lagging behind socioeconomic change, Russia fomented a kind of gangster capitalism. Mikhail Khodorkovsky took advantage of the privatization of state assets, created Russia's first commercial bank, and built Yukos, Russia's biggest oil company. His success in business was accompanied by a level of political influence that would prove precarious. In 2003, just months after publicly criticizing corruption within Vladimir Putin's government, Mikhail Khodorkovsky was arrested for fraud, and Yukos' shares were frozen and conveyed to the Russian state. He was found guilty, and sentenced to nine years' incarceration. Then, in 2010, Mikhail Khodorkovsky was hit with new charges of embezzlement and money laundering: he was essentially accused by the state of stealing his own oil, in what many recognized as a show trial.
Leave your thoughts about Citizen K.
| San Francisco ChronicleG. Allen JohnsonThat’s a strength in this documentary. It becomes clear that it’ll take a strongman to bring down a strongman, at least in this case. |
| RogerEbert.comNell MinowCitizen K is skillfully made, with a compelling story, or really stories. |
| CineVueChristopher MachellIn all this, there is an implicit if undeveloped criticism of the way that power and capital are so often the spoils of posturing masculine insecurity. |
| Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranCitizen K uses Khodorkovsky’s story as a way to guide us through the thickets of modern Russian history, a tangled, through-the-looking-glass world that the film surveys from the days of Boris Yeltsin in 1991 to today’s increasingly autocratic reign of Vladimir Putin |
| The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyWhile there are a lot of names, facts and intriguing assertions to absorb here, Gibney and editor Michael Palmer weave the dense narrative into a brisk, gripping and fascinatingly detailed thriller, enhanced by Robert Logan and Ivor Guest's suspenseful score. |
| Screen DailyFionnuala HalliganGibney’s story is clearly told and wholly engrossing. |
| VarietyGuy LodgeAuthoritative and dense — though never dull — at over two hours, Citizen K is 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. |
| Film ThreatAlex SavelievPolitical intrigues, potential murder plots – oh, and Putin’s rise-to-power and consequent 18-year-reign – Gibney serves it up, warts and all. |
| Original-CinLiam LaceyA solid, if not revelatory portrait of contemporary Russia through the story of exiled oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky. |
| The Irish TimesTara BradyGibney is equally fascinated by Putin’s journey from anonymous civil servant to strongman, and the broader political scene’s increasing resemblance to performance art. It makes for an arresting chronicle and many follow-up questions. |
