“CONNECTED”, a new documentary by an award-winning London-based director Vera Krichevskaya, premiers at Riga’s ArtDocFest to a wide critical acclaim and emotional public reception.
The film tells a story of Dmitry Zimin. A radio engineer by training, Zimin transformed himself into an incredibly successful businessman in the course of the Gorbachev’s Perestroika. Zimin and Augie Fabela, his American partner founded VimpelCom, one of the leading mobile operators in Russia. Their business success enabled Zimin to become one of the most prominent philanthropists in Russia.
In the period from 2001 to 2015, Zimin’s philanthropy project, a foundation called “Dynasty” spent over 2.5 billion rubles on numerous science and education projects in Russia. In February 2015, Dmitry Zimin’s philanthropic work was recognised with a prestigious award from the Russian Ministry of Science and Education. Ironically, three months later, in May 2015, the Russian Ministry of Justice labelled “Dynasty” a foreign agent. The reason for the authorities’ ire was Zimin’s support of the Russian opposition. Disgusted, Zimin closed down “Dynasty” and left Russia with his family.
The film is about death. Eighty-eight years old, frail and cancer-stricken Zimin bids farewells to his family and friends aboard of a boat and shares his conviction that dying is a necessary feature of life, a sign of renewal. One of his friends quotes Hemingway to explain Zimin’s fortitude: “But man is not made for defeat. A man can be destroyed but not defeated.” “Bury me in my ski boots and write on my grave “this subscriber is out of the network coverage,”” suggests Dmitry Zimin to his family.
Leaving this world on December 21, 2021, Zimin predicted the start of Putin’s war in two months. Alexey Navalny, whom Zimin had long supported, was by then in prison, later to be killed. Overcome with raw emotions, viewers may feel longing for another Russia, Russia where her true heroes are feted and not destroyed.
The trailer of the documentary below