The "fine cut " is now online for the "RENDEZ-VOUS Bi@rritz". The film will be available for broadcast around the 30th anniversary of the end of the USSR (26 Dec. 1991).
* * * *
Moscow, January 1996. Boris Yeltsin gets ready to run for a second mandate of the presidency of the young Russian Federation. Polls are in the single digits.
A painful economic transition, war in Chechnya, and the rise of criminal groups have left the majority of Russians dissatisfied with Yeltsin… and willing to vote for the communist leader Gennady Zyuganov. Yet six months later, Yeltsin won the election with nearly 54% of the vote. How did that happen?
The film invites the viewer to join the race of the first democratic presidential election of post-Soviet Russia. Russian businessmen, Western leaders and the media joined forces to make sure Russia would not go “back to the USSR”.
“Vote or Lose!” tells the story of an extraordinary magical trick that resulted in the Russian people voting AND losing…mainly their chance of gaining access to democracy.
The film combines rare archives, animation and interviews of the most important protagonists of this historic event - which undoubtedly changed not only Russia, but also the world.

Written in collaboration with Russian author Tim Toidze who previously made "Khrushchev Does America" and "Tokyo Trial: Judging Japan".