The attack on the director of the Bolshoi Ballet
Moscow, Russia, January 2013
This case is a work of fiction. The characters, names, places and events in the game do not portray real people. The account below is a factual summary, based on public sources, of the case that served as inspiration.
On the night of 17 January 2013, Sergei Filin, artistic director of the Bolshoi Ballet, was attacked with acid outside his home in Moscow by a man who called him by name. He lost much of his sight and underwent more than twenty surgeries.
The investigation found that the attack had been ordered from inside the company: a soloist of the Bolshoi itself was convicted of organizing it, driven by resentment over casting decisions, including those involving a ballerina close to him. The case exposed to the world the internal rivalries of one of the most famous companies on the planet.
Sources
In the game
Broken Pointe
Zarechny Theatre, Moscow, opening night of Giselle, 9:40 pm. At 7:52 pm, in the middle of the first act variation, prima ballerina Vera Sokolova rose onto pointe and fell. Right ankle fractured, taken to hospital. The performance was stopped.
The game borrows the setting and the motive: a Moscow ballet, an attack from within against its leading figure and a casting decision as the trigger. The method, characters and outcome are fiction.
