I asked my editor about this last night. His eyes lit up and he said "That would make a great story!" So I'll keep you posted.
It's kind of trendy for the nouveaux riches to fund artictic projects or civil society initiatives (it makes them feel important). Berezovsky saved the Andrei Sakharov Institute last year, something I think would make Sakharov turn over in his grave and should be a source of deep shame to the Institute's management.
Brother was a big deal in Russia for more than just being a nationalistic action flick. It was one of the first times contemporary Russian street jargon showed up in a film.
Another bit of Russian film advice: 1998's The Iron Heel of the Oligarchy. Loosely based on Jack London's novel The Iron Heel, it has been described as a black musical comedy version of Das Kapital.
Chris Doss The Russia Journal ----------------------------
Date: Mon, 25 Feb 2002 11:59:30 +0000 (GMT) From: "=?iso-8859-1?q?Cian=20O'Connor?=" <cian_oconnor at yahoo.co.uk> Subject: RE: Frantsiaya ne sushchestvuyet
Well that explains some, but not all. While some of the films coming out of Russia are fairly commercial (Brother for example) - many don't make money in Russia, or the west. How is Alexander Soluv still making films? They're producing the sort of arthouse fare which generally requires a subsidised film industry, OR gangsters/businessmen who need a convenient tax loss.