Before being played by Nicholas Cage in The Lord of War, Viktor Bout was a devoted husband, an Esperanto enthusiast, a young entrepreneur in post-Soviet Russia, and an amateur videographer. From his figure as a banal newlywed dancing as the putsch rages on in Moscow in the early 90s to his stature as “merchant of death” arrested by the Interpol in Thailand, the affable Viktor Bout built his career with a diligence worthy of better causes and an entrepreneurial instinct unbounded by ethics.
This delightfully crafted film has Bout narrating his own story through his own trove of home videos and a series of e-mails sent from the New York prison where he was kept during his arms trafficking trial. What transpires is a complex, human, terrifying, and humorous picture of post-Communist corruption as the base of a new capitalism whose sole moral compass is set to gold.
The film was directed by Tony Gerber (Full Battle Rattle, winner of a special prize at South By South-West in 2008 and then nominated for three Emmys) and Maxim Pozdorovkin (Pussy Riot, A Punk Prayer, which received a special jury prize at Sundance in 2013 and subsequently won an Emmy).
The documentary has been "adopted" by RISE Project.
