• Director(s):

    VASSELIN (PASCAL)

  • Producer(s):

    ARTE FRANCE, TETRA MEDIA

  • Territories:

    Worldwide.

  • Production year:

    1999

  • Language(s):

    English, French

  • Rights:

    NON-THEATRICAL, TV, DVD

This film is the story of a poker game that saw two superpowers, Russia and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), playing for incalculable stakes....

On one side of the table is a country on the verge of bankruptcy, experiencing a tortuous conversion to a free market economy. It is a drip-fed economy shored up by loans from the rest of the world. Across the table sits the International Monetary Fund, the main representative of Russia¹s creditors, once more being asked for a gigantic loan.
On the table, the pot stands at $1 billion, which the Russians will walk away with if they comply with the conditions of the IMF. For the Fund too, the stakes are huge: if Russia goes bust, it will send tremors round the world. Corruption and growing suspicions that international aid money has been embezzled are complicating the issue.
In 1999, our cameras followed the IMF¹s French Managing Director, Michel Camdessus, step by step in his marathon undertaking. From Washington to Moscow and even around the negotiating table, we go behind the scenes of financial power in the global village.