didirected by Nick Read and Mark Franchetti, this evening at 21.15 on Rai 5 the documentary is aired Bolshoi Babylon which, with exceptional shooting and materials, tells the scandal that hit the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow in 2013.
Bolshoi Babylon: the plot of the documentary
In January 2013, Sergei Filin, the artistic director of the Bolshoi Ballet, is brutally attacked by an unknown person who throws acid in his face. Procuring them third-degree burns on the face and on the neck and also risking making him lose his sight completely. Instigator of this brutal act is the dancer Pavel Dmitrichenko — and the subsequent scandal that ensues casts a sinister light on the dance company it, for decades, was the flagship of Russian history.
After Dmitrichenko’s arrest, a disturbing and hidden world gradually emerged. Made up of conflicting egos, an intense power struggle and toxic relationships.
Bolshoi Babylon thus tells a story almost like a spy movie with a compelling mix of backstage footage, breathtaking performances and interviews with the company’s dancers. Revealing how, even in the most secular cultural institutions, there are power interests unknown to most. A scandal that was not only a national tragedybut also one of the first symptoms of the moral decay of contemporary Russia.
A scene from “Bolshoi Ballet”. (Courtesy HBO)
The trial of Pavel Dmitrichenko
Sentenced to nearly six years in prison after a dramatic debate, during the hearings against him Pavel Dmitrichenko admits he asked friend Yury Zarutsky to “mistreat” Filin. But, in his defense, the dancer said that he thought that Zarutsky would only scare him with a few punches in the face and that he had absolutely no knowledge of the use of acid.
Pavel Dmitrichenko outside the Bolshoi Theater. (Getty Images)
Dmitrichenko also claims that he tried to convince his friend to turn himself in but that he threatened to do the same to his partner. A version that the judges partially accepted, though Evidence has emerged that Dmitrichenko had given the attacker a number of details such as Filin’s home address and the movements of the director of the Bolshoi.
Fellow dancers, and Filin himself, painted Dmitrichenko like a selfish and vindictive person who often complained about the alleged injustices against him and to those of his companion, always a dancer in the company, Anzhelina Vorontsova. Specialized in a “villain” roleDmitrichenko, shortly before the attack, had just finished the performance of the bloodthirsty tsar Ivan the Terrible and, in his testimony, he stated that the character would affect him psychologically.
During the hearing, Dmitrichenko accused Filin of favoritism in the distribution of roles but above all to have had sexual relations with many dancers, accusations strongly denied by the ballet director. Today Filin, later many surgical operations which only partially restored his sight, still works at the Bolshoi as director of the company of young dancers. While Dmitrichenko disappeared into thin air.
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