“Citizen K” (M) *** and a half

DOCUMENTARIST Alex Gibney’s filmography may be sparse but any subject viewed under his magnifying glass had better watch out. Because Alex goes for the jugular, no narrative confectionery, no actors doing what they’re told. The mark of a Gibney doco is the metaphorical bloodstains on the carpet.

Mikhail Khodorkovsky may be an exception. Mikhail once was reputedly the wealthiest man in post-glasnost Russia. His oil company Yukos made him a billionaire. But billionaires are not proof against political shenanigans. Mikhail did a 10-year jail stretch for tax evasion. Gibney’s film looks at the reasons.

For a politically-based doco, the problem for the average filmgoer may well be the information overload characteristic of the genre. When it’s in a foreign language, as much of “Citizen K” inevitably is, and that language is of a nation where political complexities are daily bread and butter for government, media and public, outsiders may well find floundering among its political goings-on hard to keep up with. 

Australian political high jinks are kindergarten grade compared with what goes on under Putin.

For this simple-minded reviewer who decades ago struggled to get a grounding in the Russian language, watching “Citizen K” was a hard slog. I came away from it feeling that its theme and environment were way above my pay grade. I took pleasure from watching bad guys in high places getting their comeuppances when Gibney stretched Scientology and the Ephron scandal on his metaphorical rack. This time, I had difficulty simply keeping up with who was doing what to who else for what reason. 

One thing was easily discernible. Mikhail is on the wrong side of Vlad. Bigtime. Mikhail now lives in England, where confronting despots has historically been a popular sport. And Russia’s teeming millions vote for Vlad almost as a national duty.

At Dendy