Review: 'Citizen K' captures a Russian oligarch in the act of reinventing himself as an anti-Putin activist

How does a documentarian know when his subject is lying? In filmmaker Alex Gibney’s latest, “Citizen K,” it’s hard to tell sometimes — which is what makes the film, and Gibney’s approach, so interesting.

The subject whose veracity is under scrutiny is Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who was once — or at least people say he was — the richest man in Russia. Khodorkovsky was one of the oligarchs who made mad cash when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991 and they took over many of the businesses that used to be run by the government.

Khodorkovsky, now living in London, talks rather openly about how he and the other oligarchs made their money, sometimes fleecing poverty-stricken Russians. The government gave vouchers to everyday Russians, good for a share of the government-owned businesses. Oligarchs bought up those vouchers, exchanging shares for cash that the people could use to satisfy immediate needs. What those people lost was, as it turns out, a piece of major industries — which, in Khodorkovsky’s case, was oil.

Then, as Gibney describes not just through Khodorkovsky’s account but that of journalists and others in Russia at the time, Khodorkovsky did the one thing you never do in Russia: He made the president, Vladimir Putin, look bad on television.

Soon, Khodorkovsky found himself and his oil company, Yukos, being investigated. Eventually, Khodorkovsky was sent to a Siberian prison for more than a decade. Eventually freed and exiled to London, Khodorkovsky faces a murder charge — a trumped-up one, based on no evidence, he says — if he ever sets foot in Russia.

Gibney, with his usual efficiency and intelligence, lays out the timeline of Khodorkovsky’s rise and fall with a ton of research, arresting visuals, and rock-solid interviews. The most fascinating interview is Khodorkovsky himself, who is very matter-of-fact about his role in the outlaw capitalism of post-Soviet Russia. He’s also self-effacing about his stint in prison, and his newfound activist zeal with his anti-Putin group Open Russia.

Is Khodorkovsky sincere? Or is it an act, a calculation from a man who sees advantage in playing the angel against Putin’s devil? Gibney lets Khodorkovsky say his piece, and let the audience judge. That’s more than the Putin-controlled Russian media, where Khodorkovsky and Open Russia are attacked regularly, would do for him.

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‘Citizen K’

★★★1/2

Opened January 15 in select markets; opens Friday, February 14, at the Tower Theatre (Salt Lake City). Not rated, but probably PG-13 for language and suggestions of violence. Running time: 126 minutes; in English and Russian, with subtitles.