We have been watching this 4 hour documentary as it has been broadcast on Russian television over the past 10 days, and can confirm that this is truly an unusually well-made film. We alerted readers 10 days ago that the English subtitled version was coming and now here is Part 1. Part 2 will be aired shortly. I cannot recommend this highly enough.
First of all, Andrei Kondrashov is simply a superb filmmaker. His 2015 "Crimea - the Path Home", which I also highly recommend, made him a popular hero, and established him as the leading political film maker in Russia. It was hugely popular, triggering a massive outpouring of patriotic sentiment across Russia. Watch the movie, even now, it is worth it, and may well shock you with the story it tells.
In "PUTIN', Kondrashov spent over a year digging into the Putin family story. It is a highly personal film, switching back and forth between Putin talking about world events, and vignettes from his childhood, interviews with school teachers, childhood friends, stories of his parents, his grandparents, the villages they came from, etc. There are interviews with world leaders like Gerhard Schroeder of Germany and Silvio Berlusconi of Italy, his inner circle, and with everyday people who encountered him in one capacity or another.
The creation and timing of this film could not be more deliberate, and sources have told us that it was rushed to released as world events appear to be spiraling out of control. It is a very deliberate effort to counter the incredible deluge of slander and character assassination hurled at Putin by BBC, PBS, and other biographies, and the entire Jewish mainstream media, that are flat-out lies.
So now you really do have a choice. Enjoy this film this Sunday evening, and then ask yourself, which picture of Putin seems more convincing to you?
This film leaves no doubt in my mind.
We will be bringing you interesting excerpts over the course of the week, so stay tuned.