Film Screening: The Man Who Was Too Free

Film Screening: The Man Who Was Too Free
Date
-
Event Sponsor
Freeman Spogli Institute, Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law
Location
Bechtel Conference Center, Encina Hall, 616 Serra Street

The film will be screened in Russian with English subtitles. Doors will open at 6:00pm. 

The life and fate of Boris Nemtsov is inextricably intertwined with the history of Russia over the last 25 years. The film begins in the 1990s, when Nemtsov was seen as a possible future president of the country, and ends in February 2015 with his assassination on Moskvoretsky Bridge across from the Kremlin as an opposition leader. Nemtsov was the only Russian political figure who shone brightly in both the 1990s, with its free press, political infighting and low gas prices, and in the 2000s, a time of stability, economic growth, censorship and the fall of political competition. Director Vera Krichevskaya and journalist Mikhail Fishman have told the full political biography of Boris Nemtsov in this documentary. The most important, pivotal events of Russian history and Nemtsov's role in them are discussed by his friends, colleagues, family members and fellow politicians. “The Man Who Was Too Free” won the “White Elephant” award from the Russian Guild of Film Critics in the category of “Best Documentary Film of 2016”.

Professor Michael McFaul, Director of the Freeman Spogli Institute, will introduce the film and answer questions following the screening. McFaul is Professor of Political Science, Director and Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, and the Peter and Helen Bing Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution. He joined the Stanford faculty in 1995. He is also an analyst for NBC News and a contributing columnist to The Washington Post. Dr. McFaul served for five years in the Obama administration, first as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Russian and Eurasian Affairs at the National Security Council at the White House (2009-2012), and then as U.S. Ambassador to the Russian Federation (2012-2014).