Andrey Konchalovsky

Director Andrey Konchalovsky owed Vnesheconombank about $130 million. As Transparency International – Russia learned, * the director received this money for the film adaptation of the ballet The Nutcracker, which was released in 2010 and failed at the box office.

The film was shot in English to work on a musical based on the fairy tale “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King”, including “Hollywood’s best masters”, according to Konchalovsky. Elle Fanning plays the lead role in the movie. Before the premiere of the movie’s trailer, Konchalovsky stated that The Nutcracker was shot with the money of American investors, but there is a line in the film’s credits that “created with the support of Vnesheconombank.”

According to media reports, this was not about unrequited sponsorship: the bank made a loan of $ 50 million to Konchalovsky’s company. An additional $30 million was allocated for the film by private investors, including the director himself and British producer Paul Lowin. The bank later gave the film another $10.9 million to convert it to 3D. Thus, The Nutcracker and the Mouse King became the most expensive film in the history of the Russian film industry.

The creators planned to return the money from the fees of the film, but the fairy tale failed at the box office: according to Konchalovsky, the reason was negative reviews. The film received really bad reviews from film critics – they saw in the plot an allegory for Nazism. Wages in the United States were only $ 196 thousand, and the world: $ 15 million, of which 13.7 million came from Russia.

To obtain financing for the film, Konchalovsky opened a company in the Cayman Islands called Nutcracker Holdings Limited. In 2009, the bank filed its first lawsuit against Nutcracker Holdings Limited, but the director requested that the payment date be delayed as the Nutcracker premiere was delayed. At the end of 2020, the company was already owed $127.8 million (including principal, interest and legal fees) but was shut down at the time. It is unknown at what stage the trial is at the moment – Konchalovsky and VEB did not respond to requests from journalists.

* “Transparency International – Russia” – Russian non-profit organization that is part of the international anti-corruption movement. Transparency International recognized as foreign agent in Russia