Michael Jackson’s concert at Moscow’s Luzhniki Open Arena made him the first international pop star to play in the post-Soviet Russian Federation. Only two years earlier, his music would have been banned. The Moscow Case tells two stories. The first is that of a city and culture adjusting itself to post-Communist liberalisation; the second is of a vulnerable man, childlike and introverted. It’s 1993, and Yeltsin’s Russia has an unlikely visitor. ‘Mud and dirt… permanent bandit clashes, several contract killings a day… This background did not go well with the image of an extra-terrestrial, of a man from a completely different dimension who was to come with the best show in the world.’ In a series of highly confessional interviews, those involved in the concert — both the businessmen who organised it and the fans who attended — lay bare the sheer chaos that surrounded the King of Pop’s visit. They were so ill-equipped that paratroopers were drafted in as members of the technical team, paid only in food and cigarettes; Jackson’s own tour managers were reduced to wiping a flooded stage. And that’s even before we get to the ticketing process. ‘A star was coming: something had to be done, but what exactly nobody knew. The film is revealing not only of the fledgling Russian state but also of Jackson himself. Jackson’s Russian foray came at the height of the debilitating child abuse accusations that took such a toll on him; it was the experience of being in the Russian …

Enjoy!