Russian Producer to Make Film About Ukraine's Ex-Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko

 
MOSCOW -- A Russian producer has announced a feature film about Ukrainian ex-prime minister and currently presidential candidate Yulia Tymoshenko.

Anna Krutova, formerly vice president of STV, a major Russian film production company, said she will write and produce the feature, for which she expects to attract Russian state funding and support from Eurimages.
The Russian daily Izvestia quoted Krutova as saying that the movie is not going to "idealize" Timoshenko. "She is an adventurous politician rather than a fighter for justice," she said, adding that the film with a budget of between $4 million and $5 million is expected to go into production in early 2015. No director or lead actress has been attached to the project so far.
Tymoshenko, 53, played an important role in Ukraine's 2004 "Orange Revolution," but her subsequent stint as the country's Prime Minister was ridden with ambiguity. Lately, she spent more than two years in jail under former President Viktor Yanukovych, with the case against her widely believed to be persecution of a political opponent. After being released last February, she announced her bid for presidency in the election scheduled for May 25.
According to most recent opinion polls, Tymoshenko is in second place after Petro Poroshenko.
Incidentally, back in 2006, Tymoshenko was featured in Yulia, a controversial erotic short film produced by Russian Duma Deputy Alexei Mitrofanov.
Krutova's first independent project after leaving STV was the $3 million comedy Happy March 8, Guys, released last March.