The Russian film Faust, which won the Golden Lion award at the Venice film festival came out thanks to the help of powerful Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, director Alexander Sokurov said Tuesday.

“The film would not have seen the light if Putin had not found the funding,” the Russian arthouse film-maker, 60, said.

In autumn 2009, as the global economic crisis hit Russia and froze film productions, the director showed his plans for the film based on Goethe’s tragedy to Mr Putin, who had invited him to his country house outside Moscow.

“He listened to me very attentively, asking precise questions about the actors and the costumes,” the director said.

The Prime Minister, who served in East Germany as a KGB agent, showed “astonishing affinities with German culture” and “expressed only one wish: that the feature film shot in German should be a Russian production,” Mr Sokurov said.

A month later, a little-known charitable foundation called the Fund for the Support of the Development of Mass Media in Putin’s hometown of St Petersburg earmarked €8 million to make Faust, Mr Sokurov said.

The rest of the film’s budget – €1 million – was contributed by a Foundation to Support Russian Cinema, created recently on Mr Putin’s initiative, he said. On Saturday, Mr Putin phoned Mr Sokurov to congratulate him just seven minutes after the prize was awarded, the director said.

“I was astonished and never understood why Putin, who has never been a friend of mine, decided to support the film,” said the director, whose films are far better known in Europe than in his native country.

Faust is the final part of a four-part series of films about the corrupting influence of power, which began in 1999 with a fictional portrait of Adolf Hitler, followed by portraits of Vladimir Lenin and Emperor Hirohito.

It follows Dr Faust (played by Johannes Zeiler) as he pursues his basest instincts in a frantic search for power and love.

Mr Putin praised the film as “grandiose” in a message of congratulations to Sokurov.