"Some of our heroes have already begun to crush"

A look at the Sochi Olympics through the lens of the movie camera

The display of the documentary “Putin Games” at the Artdokfest festival in Moscow was held at a full house: all tickets were sold in advance, the audience stood in the aisles. On the eve of the show, one of the producers of the picture of Simone Baumann answered the New Times questions

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The post of the film "Putin's Games" ("Putin Games")

The film "Putin Games" is already called scandalous-primarily because of the story of € 600 thousand, for which you were offered to buy it. When did you receive such an offer and from whom?

This happened when the film was already in installation. Shortly before that, we presented a trailer and told what the picture would be about. And after that it began! Some people came up and said: NTV wants to see your trailer, the Russian Olympic Committee wants to know what your film will be about ... I said to everyone: listen, people, I will not give anything to anyone. I fundamentally do not discuss such things. And immediately sent everyone.

Who benefits

People who were offered money, do you personally know?

I don’t know them closely, I only know that they are connected with Russian-German film projects. I saw one of them once before ... They know that you won’t be especially earned in documentary cinema. If you cover your costs, it is already good. We had € 250 thousand in the film’s budget, we spent € 300 thousand, which means that € 50 thousand will have to somehow pay for sales. Well, if sales go very well, then we may earn € 70 thousand, that is, we will have € 20 thousand income - this is for three producers, for three companies. So € 600 thousand - this is really a lot of money for us. Their calculation was like this: to immediately offer double financing. Just these people do not understand that we do not work for the sake of big money.

Are you sure that these people are somehow connected with the Russian government or the leadership of the Olympics?

I don’t know, maybe they were connected with the government. Maybe they represented people close to the government. Who else is beneficial so that there is no show?

But these were not officials?

No, not officials. Rather, intermediaries. I do not even exclude that these were impostors. We had such a case with my colleagues: they shot the full -length film “Rublevka”. And then suddenly a person came, who introduced himself as a Russian distributor who offered them a large amount for the right to a world show. Those were delighted with the money and signed the contract with him, and it ended that this picture was actually closed, that is, they removed it from the market. The authors could not even send the film to the festival to China without their consent. They came up to me and asked what to do, but it was too late. From the legal side, the positions of buyers were impeccable - they bought the rights to the picture. Therefore, I grew up to deal with this kind of public.

And after your refusal, they no longer appeared?

They then called another time, asked to "name our amount." But I am absolutely convinced that there is no need to even discuss anything with such people. Moreover, I have all the rights to the film. I have all the money western, I owe nothing to anyone here (in Russia).

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Personal lobbying, of course, affects the member of the IOC if the Russian president meets you and says: “Come on, dear, vote”

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Personal lobbying

What is the main idea of ​​your film?

The main thing for us was to find the answer to the question: why is Russia the Winter Olympiad in the subtropics of Sochi, and not in any other place? This was the initial question of the director. And, of course, the question of what cost is all construction actually from scratch there. And also we wanted to understand why the IOC decided to give the games of Sochi, although Salzburg and South Korean Pyeongchang were better prepared.

And did you understand that?

In principle, they understood.

And why?

I have long understood that the IOC is a very peculiar organization. They do not proceed from the place in which there is a good finished infrastructure. On the one hand, they love to develop new regions, on the other hand, they prefer to build where there is a lot of money and little civil protest. Plus, business interests are taken into account. In fact, most of the Austrian business was not interested in Salzburg, because everything was built there. And nothing was built in Sochi. And who is building all these lifts? The Olympic village, the airport is all the Austrians (Doppelmayr and the construction concern Strabag. - The New Times). For them, Sochi was a paradise in terms of business. And the viewer from the context of the film understands that it was beneficial to the Austrians to win Sochi.

Producer of Putin Games Simone Baumann December 4, 2013, Moscow

There were rumors that the decision on Sochi could be the result of corruption, that the IOC members could elementarily bribe. Have you encountered such information in the process of filming?

To be honest, I do not think that they carried money with suitcases. But Putin met - and this is stated in the film - with each member of the IOC personally. With each. Personal lobbying, of course, affects the member of the IOC if the Russian president meets you and says: “Come on, dear, vote.” Plus guarantees that everything will be built, despite the price, is also a very strong argument. Of course, maybe there were other guarantees that we do not know about. Maybe we do not know about any bribes, but I can easily imagine that no one brought money.

What struck you most personally? After all, there was some idea of ​​both the city and the Olympics. You learned something new that did not fit into these ideas?

At some point, there was a feeling that no one was controlling anything and no one knows how much it is real. Honestly. For a long time we could not know anything about the budget, they (officials) did not want to say, but there was also the feeling that the authorities themselves did not know how much money was pouring and where: everything was too large, and from some point, the deadlines began to squeeze. That is, it seems to you that there is some huge plan, and then you begin to think that maybe there is no plan.

The “Olympic” law that allows you to take the land for the needs of the state was also amazed. And there were a lot of cases when they took away sections that had nothing to do with the Olympics at all, because they were in the center of Sochi, and in the center of Sochi there was no Olympiad. We had the feeling that maybe this law is used to privatize the tidbits of the Earth for someone. For example, our film shows an almost completed cottage village where representatives of the middle class lived. These people sold their property to build houses in the city center, and had to settle there in three months. And the authorities decided to demolish all this ... for the sake of the bus stop. The bus stop is what kind of Olympic object?!

When they started talking about the film, some of our heroes began to crush at the level of the Sochi administration. There were threats to business

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"This is a comedy in places"

Did you willingly agree to talk to you?

It was very difficult to agree on an interview. Probably, ninety percent of officials refused to communicate with us. For the objects of Gazprom, we have never been allowed for four years. They refused without explanation. The Accounts Chamber ... We got auditors for three years. We already wrote them a list of questions from which they could choose which one to answer. We even offered them to answer in writing - nothing happened. This is just an example, it was with many.

We are a year or even a year and a half, for example, we achieved a meeting with the mayor of Sochi. Then, when we met him, he really liked our director, who is well prepared, knows many different things and knows how to ask questions. And he (mayor) decided with us for three hours to walk around the city. We were interested to hear the opinions of people responsible for this project. We asked him about corruption. He says about the following in the film there in the film: “Everyone is talking about corruption in Sochi, but this is not corruption, this is a resort. Look, here people go, rest. ” A lot of humor in the film. This is in some places comedy.

But you know, even among people who suffered from construction, not everyone was ready to say something in front of the camera. And it worsened before our eyes. If in 2010 people were more open, then later they also ceased to communicate.

How did they explain why they do not want to talk on camera?

They said they were afraid. They are afraid of consequences. And by the way, after our first show in Amsterdam, when they started talking about the film, some of our heroes were already released and began to put pressure at the level of the Sochi city administration. Some of them have their own business-as I understand it, there were threats to business. As I understood, from conversations with these people that this is not a joke, that the threats are real.

What do you think to react to such threats?

I can shoot videos from the Internet.

Well, you understand that you won’t erase anything from the Internet, and one way or another everything that has been posted there will remain there.

Yes, but psychologically, maybe it will be easier for them if they know that we have removed something at their request. In general, we have all the rights to show this film. Formally, legally we have the right to show it around the world. On the other hand, we have moral responsibility to our heroes. I understand that problems can arise only with shows in Russia, but in Russia we have only two shows.

Your film was shown in the center of Moscow. How did you manage to coordinate the show? You were not afraid that at the last moment you would be asked, for example, to remove it from the program?

This film is part of the German program "Artdokfest". On the eve of the show, the police came to the “artistic”, interviewed the organizers about our film. But in the end, everything went calmly. They are smart, they must understand: two shows in the artistic cinema is about 600 people at the same show, that is, 1,200 people will see this film. 1200 people in Moscow, where 16 million live in Russia, where 145 million live. I still cannot understand why they are so worried. All the same, we will have no big broadcast.

Have you tried to agree on a more large -scale show of the film in Russia?

So far, only one regional television channel - TV2 from Tomsk - is going to show the film. I do not think that one of the federal television channels will take a chance, although if they wanted, we would love to give them the right to display. I flew to Moscow on Sunday and I already feel that everything here is on such nerves because of this Olympics. And this despite the fact that in this film we do not show anything from the fact that a Russian interested citizen would not have read many times on the Internet: about corruption, and about the departure of land, and about the environment.

Photo: Maria Aismont

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