内容摘要："I had 60 or 70 people hoping I could contact their loved ones after I got out to tell them what was happening."

"I had 60 or 70 people hoping I could contact their loved ones after I got out to tell them what was happening."

Portnov was controversial and widely disliked. The motives for his murder may seem evident, but his death has still left unanswered questions.Before entering Ukrainian politics, Portnov ran a law firm. He worked with then-Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko until 2010, before defecting to Yanukovych's camp when he won the election.

"It was a big story of betrayal," remembers Ukrainian journalist Kristina Berdynskykh. "Because Tymoshenko was a pro-Western politician, and Yanukovych pro-Russian."The adviser became the country's first deputy head of the Presidential Office and set up a national criminal code in 2012. For him, his critics say, his ascent was less about politics, and more about power and influence."He was just a good lawyer, everyone knew he was very smart," Kristina tells me.

, Ukraine inherited a judicial system in desperate need of reform. Mykhailo Zhernakov, a legal expert and head of the Dejure Foundation believes Portnov remoulded it in order for the government to cover up illegal schemes, and to mask Russian attempts to control the country."He was the kingpin, mastermind and architect of this corrupt legal system designed to serve the pro-Russian administration at the time," he says.

Over a decade, Portnov would sue journalists who wrote negative stories about him through the courts and judges he controlled. His attempts to control the judicial system would lead to him being sanctioned by the US.

At the time, Washington accused the adviser of placing loyal officials in senior positions for his own benefit, as well as "buying court decisions".That's partly because there's no institutional support, says Shefali Bhushan, Sthal's producer, who, along with three other partners, put their own money to finance the film.

The big studios don't pick-up Marathi projects without an "obvious commercial appeal", which means an ecosystem supportive of experimental artistic voices is sorely lacking, she adds.Unlike Kerala, Maharashtra also offers little state support for regional cinema and lacks a strong movie-going culture.

Being centred mainly around the cities of Mumbai and Pune, Marathi films "feel the full, suffocating weight of Bollywood, that other regional cinemas don't", says Shedde.Besides, Maharashtra does not have Kerala's highly "cine-literate audience" where "rice farmers discuss [legendary filmmaker Sergei] Eisenstein and his legacy", giving those filmmakers confidence that their small indie film can recover costs and make money, she adds.