Tycoon: A New Russian (2002)
"Oligarkh" (original title)

During the Gorbachev years, Platon Makovski and his four buddies are university students who jump on the private capitalism movement. Fast-forward 20 years, Platon finds himself the richest... See full summary »

Director:

Pavel Lungin

Writers:

Yuliy Dubov (novel), Aleksandr Borodyanskiy (screenplay),

Stars:

Vladimir Mashkov, Mariya Mironova, Andrey Krasko

1 win.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Vladimir Mashkov	...	Platon Makovskiy
Mariya Mironova	...	Mariya
Andrey Krasko	...	Shmakov
Levan Uchaneishvili	...	Larri
Mikhail Vasserbaum	...	Mark
Sergey Yushkevich	...	Viktor
Aleksandr Samoylenko	...	Musa
Natalya Kolyakanova	...	Nina
Aleksandr Baluev	...	Koretskiy
Vladimir Gusev	...	Lomov
Vladimir Steklov	...	Belenkiy
Marat Basharov	...	Koshkin
Vladimir Salnikov	...	Papa Grisha
Vladimir Golovin	...	Akhmed
Vladimir Kashpur	...	Kapitan korablya

Storyline

During the Gorbachev years, Platon Makovski and his four buddies are university students who jump on the private capitalism movement. Fast-forward 20 years, Platon finds himself the richest man in Russia, having sacrificed his friends to get to the top. But with this cynical rise, comes a brutal fall.

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Plot Keywords:

russia | russian mafia | politician | murder | nonlinear timeline | 

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Genres:

Crime | Drama

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Details

Official Sites:

Pyramide Films [fr]

Country:

Russia France Germany

Language:

Russian

Release Date:

23 April 2003 (France)

Also Known As:

Tycoon: A New Russian

Box Office

Budget:

$5,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$13,342 (USA) (13 June 2003)

Gross:

$121,016 (USA) (31 October 2003)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Arte, Catherine Dussart Productions (CDP), Etalon film

Technical Specs

Runtime:

123 min 128 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

User Reviews

"And you will produce wolves on this earth"

I'm absolutely surprised that people in the West and especially in US watch this movie. Equally, I'm surprised they read War and Peace, Idiot, Crime and Punishment, Fathers and Sons etc.

This is not to say the movie is of the same magnitude as the books in the list, rather that it's equally deep and ought to be equally strange for a westerner. And, as usual, the moral of the story is ( kind of ) based on a piece of ( Galich, "One more time about the devil" ) poetry, and poetry is never easy to translate.

From my point of view, the story is entertaining and educating - to me. It's a little scary - to me, meaning "thank god I was too young to be a part of it", but it certainly is not "herky-jerky", characters are definitely well-developed. I was actually quite surprised how convincing the acting and the dialogs were.

Someone said the movie "asks more questions than it answers", I'd say it's what a good movie should do! Art is actually about asking questions, not answering them. If you want answers, turn to religion.

I rate the movie 10 out of 10 ( though it would be about 96 out of 100, some minor technicalities ).