A movie «The Magnitsky Act — Behind the Scenes» was presented on June 13 at a movie evening in Munich. The organizer was the portal “Telepolis”, which also published an article about the “Magnitsky Act”.
“The movie «The Magnitsky Act — Behind the Scenes» developed into a political scandal. The show in the European Parliament from German TV channels “Arte” and “ZDF” was foiled, as well as broadcasting on “Arte” in 2016, despite the fact that these radio stations are civil, and the film was financed by famous cultural funds.
What is extremely topical in the documentary film by the cinematographer Andrei Nekrasov, known earlier for his criticism of Putin?
It is about cause of the death of Sergei Magnitsky, who died in November 2009 in a Russian prison, allegedly as a result of bullying. The employer of Magnitsky, an American financier and director of the Hermitage Fund, Bill Browder, made him the hero of exposing the theft of $ 230 million to employees of the Russian police and the Ministry of the Interior, who allegedly cooperated with the mafia.
Magnitsky discovered this, and, therefore, he had to die – this is the story of Browder, modeled after Western detectives about the Kremlin.
This story became the property of the world community, as well as the basis for the American law “Magnitsky Act”. The same law, the cancellation of which was the reason and part of the negotiations of Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner and the chairman of the election commission Paul Manafort with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya in 2016. An additional motive for the meeting with the American side was the desire to obtain compromising information about Hillary Clinton. “
First, the director Nekrasov himself was convinced of the version of the American investor Bill Browder, but when shooting the film inconsistencies began to appear and questions that were not suitable in the general style of answers. The film, which began with the reconstruction of the dramatic story of good and evil, as Browder said, which captivates the viewer into an intricate investigation, gradually turned into a narrative where the successful version of the West actually disintegrated.
The film “The Magnitsky Act – Behind the Scenes” collected a disagreement in the images of Bill Browder. It presents interviews of the persons involved, documents were checked and evaluated archival material: for example, videotaping the interrogation of Bill Browder by attorney Mark Cimrot on April 15, 2015 in New York. In a 7-hour poll, which is available in full length on the Internet, Browder is forced to admit that some of his public utterances about Magnitsky are wrong.
Beginning with disorienting indications about the circumstances of Magnitsky’s death in the prison cell, Nekrasov and his team disclose the circumstances of his death. It turns out that Magnitsky was not tortured. “Accusations of torture are a lie,” says Nekrasov, who has letters from Magnitsky from prison, in which “an average of 100 people die each year.” Or also the fact that Magnitsky was questioned as “authorized accountant Browder” on suspicion of tax evasion by an American financier. These and many other previously soaking details, signs of negligence and obvious errors reveal Nekrasov’s film than Browder reveals.