German director Andrei Nekrasov detained in Russia

Filmmaker and playwright Andrei Nekrasov was arrested on August 24, 2024, in Russia's central Smolensk region, the 66-year-old told DW via telephone. He said he was being kept in a detention center for foreign nationals.

Born in St. Petersburg, Nekrasov does not hold Russian citizenship, only German. The German Embassy in Russia has already established contact with Nekrasov, the Federal Foreign Office confirmed to DW.

The director, best known for his 2016 film "The Magnitsky Act" exploring the death of a Russian tax accountant in police custody, said he was gathering footage for a new film project in Smolensk when he was apprehended. Without sharing details about the movie or exact location, Nekrasov said he was arrested by plainclothes officers of Russia's Federal Security Service, or FSB. He said the reason was that he had been filming near an FSB building.

Director fears prison term will be extended 

Following Nekrasov's arrest, a court charged him with violating an administrative ordinance on illegal vocational activities and found him guilty. He was sentenced to 90 days in a detention center for foreign nationals. The court's ruling did not take into consideration that, as Nekrasov claims, he knew nothing of the FSB building and had no intention of filming it.

According to Article 18.10 of Russia's code of administrative offenses, the German director could be prosecuted for taking up illegal work in Russia, as a lawyer, who requested anonymity, told DW. They added that the highest possible sentence would be a fine and forcible expulsion from the country.

In such a case, the court can order an arrest for up to 90 days, during which a court officer must arrange for transportation and follow up the deportation with a ban on entering Russia for five years, the lawyer said.

But Nekrasov fears his prison term will be extended. Speaking with DW, the lawyer confirmed that, according to the same law cited, prison terms can be extended if court officials are unable to carry out the sentence within the first 90 days. This could be the case, for example, when no direct or transit flights are available.

No contact with Nekrasov since publication

Nekrasov has reported that conditions in the detention center where he is being held are similar to those in prison: there is a bed with a hard mattress, and a small window behind bars that barely permits any light into the cell.

He added that the staff at the detention center treated others "humanely," providing help "as much as they could."

Nekrasov did not answer further questions, stating only that his telephone was being confiscated. By the time this article was published, he could no longer be reached.

A testament to cinematography

Andrei Nekrasov was born in St. Petersburg in 1958. In the 1970s, he married a German and emigrated to Germany, where he worked as an assistant for Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky on the set of his 1986 movie "The Sacrifice."

In Europe and Russia, Nekrasov has gone on to make a number of feature and documentary films, including "Poisoned by Polonium" in 2007, which covers the assassination of a former Russian spy in London. The FSB-officer-turned-whistleblower Alexander Litvinenko had accused Russian secret services of staging the 1999 Russian apartment bombings and other acts of terror.

Nekrasov has also made films on the Chechen-Russian conflict and the Russian-Georgian conflict.

He has won multiple international film and literature awards.

Lena Crohmal contributed to this article, which was originally written in Russian.