Ivory. A Crime Story (2016)

3 years of shooting, 30 countries, over 250 hours of raw material provided the basis for the investigation documentary «IVORY. A CRIME STORY» about the causes and consequences of an unprecedented demand for ivory. The investigation was carried out by the well-known former Russian politician Sergey Yastrzhembskiy, spokesman for Boris Yeltsin and Aide to Vladimir Putin. After leaving the Kremlin, he has dedicated his life to filmmaking, mainly throughout the African continent, and shooting a series of documentary films on the endangered traditional African peoples. Passionate about trophy hunting, he ran directly into the heinous scale of the elephants extermination in Africa. This film is a challenge to the civilized world, which is unable today to stop the bloody business of ivory. This film is an accusation of the inefficiency of many non-governmental organizations, engaged in the preservation of rare plants and animal species threatened with extinction, but in fact appearing to be dormant. This film is an exposure of African corruption, which erodes the continent like a cancer. This film takes the masks off the Catholic Church and the Buddhist monks encouraging the demand for ivory. This film disconcertingly shows the role of China, the main culprit for the death of African elephants, whose avid demand for ivory has brought these animals to the brink of total extinction.