A series of 7 documentaries will tell the stories of activists, journalists, human rights defenders and lawyers, as well as whistleblowers (whistleblowersAccording to the organizers (the festival is a joint product of Transparency International, Doc Society and Bertha Foundation), the coverage of such topics on the wide screen will enhance discussions on the real opportunities of citizens in the fight against corruption and draw attention to the difficulties arising on their way.
For example, the film Serpico (1973), starring Al Pacino, is about Frank Serpico, a New York City Police Department officer who is the first to risk exposing a corruption network that has entangled the entire human rights system in his city. Unable to see any real response from the federal authorities to the information he has uncovered, the film is based on a real-life case.
After the release of the movie, Serpico became a symbol of the fight against the arbitrariness of corrupt police: in Thailand, truckers began to stick the image of Al Pacino's character on their cars, claiming that it helped them avoid unwanted encounters with unscrupulous police officers.
For example, in the noir thriller Worse Than a Lie (2016) (the original title sounds like Misconduct), Al Pacino "went to the dark side" and played one of the organizers of a corrupt scheme in the pharmaceutical industry. In the film's plot, as a result of an adultery, a young lawyer Ben Cahill gains access to secret files stolen by his girlfriend from her lover, a pharmaceutical tycoon (who was played by Al Pacino).
The plot of the black crime comedy "American Affair" (2013), which was an Oscar contender in 10 nominations and received a number of other cinematic awards, is based on the events of the Abscam operation. It was the first operation based on provocation (sting operation), which was conducted by the FBI in 1978-1980 and was initially designed to reveal a criminal scheme of illegal trade in stolen antiques, but later on the FBI's investigation of the illegal trade in stolen antiquities.
Netflix decided to further explore the events of a more modern police operation - Operation Car Wash - after the release of a dedicated episode in the series House of Cards (2013-2018) in a separate series, Mechanism (2018-...), which tells the story of how a money-laundering investigation at a gas station turned into a national and political crisis in Brazil. The title of the series is a term the director used to christen the all-consuming systemic corruption that has existed in the country almost since it emerged from military dictatorship in 1985.
In addition to heroic revelations (or attempts to revelations) of corruption, the cinematography did not avoid the theme of repentance of hardened criminals. Thus, in the drama Bad Lieutenant (1992), the main character - a corrupt New York policeman who constantly drinks, uses drugs, "roofs" prostitution and uses his official position for relations with minors - in the process of investigating the case of rape of a nun rethinks his life, decides to change and redeem his guilt.
But not always artists (as well as many other activists and human rights defenders) manage to reveal to the general public the existing problems of corruption in their country so easily. For example, the Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof became a victim of persecution by law enforcement agencies for his films, which the authorities consider "propaganda against the regime" and "a threat to national security. His previous films "Manuscripts Do Not Burn" and "The Iron Island" were banned in Iran. The director's latest film, "An Honest Man" ( original title