Connected (2025)

This is a fascinating documentary - with a bad synopsis, tag line and poster, as can be seen at the top of this page, which don't do it justice at all.

Without imagining that I have talent for it or putting much effort into it, something like this might make more people interested:



"Shortly after the fall of the Soviet Union two unlikely men, one from Russia and one from the USA, founded what would become one of Russia's biggest telecom companies, VimpelCom.

This film looks back at that time, during the "Wild East" years of post-communist Russia, as well as the country's turbulent history as intertwined with the rest of the long life of the 88-year-old, outspoken, Russian co-founder."



And even though tag lines are a kind of cheesy thing:

"They built a Russian telecom empire - then Putin demolished Russia"



A small negative with the documentary itself is that it is sometimes quite information dense. There is for instance a sequence with subtitles for spoken Russian, while banners carried by demonstrators are also being translated. At least to my late night brain that created overload and it might have been a good idea to sometimes let a speaker voice take over, slow things down and clarify for instance what the Arbat is.

That being said it is essential watching for anyone who has interest in the themes it deals with and it is highly recommended!