Viktor Bout, the “merchant of death” who inspired Nicolas Cage’s performance in Lord of War, was an infamous international arms merchant by the time a U.S.-government sting operation led to his 2008 arrest in Thailand. Belying this supervillain image, however, Bout was also an ebullient family man, fervent home-movie maker, and tireless businessman who embodied the entrepreneurial opportunism of post-communist Russia. Now languishing in an American prison, he continues to insist that he was simply in the business of transporting goods—what they were and what they’d be used for were not his concern. As these political and semantic interpretations develop, a study of contradictions and media mythmaking emerges. The film, directed by Maxim Pozdorovkin (Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer) and Tony Gerber (Full Battle Rattle) comes alive through its compelling source material, including Bout’s home videos, and spans twenty years, various rogue regimes, and five continents with a skillfully assembled multiplicity of perspectives.  TM