| Tycoon (lit. Oligarch) | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Pavel Loungine (Lungin) |
| Produced by | Erich Weissberg |
| Written by | Aleksandr Borodyanskyy Pavel Loungine Yuli Dubov |
| Starring | Vladimir Mashkov Mariya Mironova |
| Music by | Leonid Desyatnikov |
| Editing by | Sophie Brunet |
| Running time | 123 min. |
| Country | Russia France Germany |
| Language | Russian |
Tycoon (lit. Oligarch): A New Russian (Russian: Олигарх) is a 2002 Russian movie directed by Pavel Loungine (or Lungin).
Contents |
During the Mikhail Gorbachev years, Platon Makovsky and four buddies of his are university students who jump on the private capitalism movement. Fast-forward 20 years, Platon finds himself the richest man in Russia. But as such, he and his friends are drawn more and more into relations with suspect organizations. They also have to face ever more brutal attempts to subjugate them by the Kremlin. Makovsty attempts to compete with this ever-present political power, by becoming as "creating a Kremlin" himself.
The film is based on "Bolshaya Paika" ("The Big Slice") - a novel by Yuli Dubov, depicting the real biography of Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky and his partners. Dubov was Berezovsky's partner himself, and a president of his LogoVAZ company. The novel is claimed to be historically precise in many aspects. The names of the characters were changed from their real life counterparts, though keeping resemblance (e.g. Boris Berezovsky, who changed his name to Platon Elenin in exile in 2004, to Platon Makovsky, Badri Patarkatsishvili to Lari Teishvili, etc.)
In June 2009, Dubov and Berezovsky were convicted in absentia (they are both living in exile in England) in a Russian court for the events that served as the basis for the book to 9 and 13 years of imprisonment respectively. The book served as one of the pieces of evidence against them.[1]
"Now I'll prove to you that a crocodile is more long than green. Because it is as long on the upper side, as it is from below, whereas it's green just on the upper side. And now I'll demonstrate that a crocodile is more green than wide. Because it is as green in length as it is in width, but it is wide just in width." (Platon, to demonstrate that logic can prove anything)
"Logic is not strange. It either is present or not." (Platon to Karetskiy)
"On the basis of logic you can prove practically anything." (Platon to Karetskiy)
"He thought he was teasing geese, while he was teasing a bear. And an irritated bear tears you to pieces." (Mark to Shliapov about Platon)
"It will never be the way it should in this country. This is a country of ever-green tomatoes" (Mark to Platon)
"Hey, you new Russian, go on, go on!
You've forgotten the bus,
You've forgotten the tram.
And you live your life in Mercedeses." (song at Platon's 40th birthday)
"I don't eat your swans. I just drink. ... The very same thing that the whole country is drinking, our native water [i.e. vodka]" (tipsy Nina when she was criticizing the affluence of Platon's circle)
"You know yourself that a business of mistrust ends with tragedies, nearly with bloodshed. And tragedies we don't need. This is the main rule of our work." (Platon to Victor)
"You have two hands, the right and the left one, haven't you. But the Kremlin has dozens of hands! Just like the Hindu god Shiva. And all of them, mind you, want to eat. What is more - eat well. So, sometimes the left one wants to get a wallet from the right one." (Lary to Shliapov)
"If we cannot win with the Kremlin, we need to become the Kremlin ourselves!" (Platon)
"You do not get born president. You BECOME a president." (Platon to Lary, when he decided to back one of the presidential candidates)