WASHINGTON, December 5 (RIA Novosti) – A documentary film on the life and career of convicted Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout will receive its world premiere at next year’s Sundance Festival, the Sundance Institute has announced.
“The Notorious Mr. Bout,” directed by Maxim Pozdorovkin and Tony Gerber, is described on the Sundance website as the “rags-to-riches prison memoir” of “a war profiteer, an entrepreneur, an aviation tycoon” and “an arms dealer.”
Intriguingly, the description also refers to Bout as “a documentary filmmaker” and seems to hint that his own footage will be used in the film.
“The Notorious Mr. Bout” will compete against 11 other films from around the world in the “world cinema documentary” category, the Sundance Institute said Wednesday.
Co-director Pozdorovkin has already enjoyed success at the festival, which is held each year in Utah. This year he won the “special jury award for punk spirit” for his documentary, “Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer,” which he directed with Mike Lerner.
The same documentary has also been shortlisted for the 2014 Academy Awards, Billboard.com reported Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the subject of Pozdorovkin’s latest film lives in a world far removed from the glamour of movie premieres.
Bout is currently serving a 25-year prison sentence in the United States for trying to sell arms to Colombian rebel group FARC, which the United States views as a terrorist organization.
“The Notorious Mr. Bout” is not the arms dealer’s first brush with celluloid fame. Bout was one of several real-life figures used as a source of inspiration for the Nicholas Cage character Yuri Orlov in the 2005 film, “Lord of War.”
