Pavel Talankin: His Oscar was lost.Image: www.imago-images.de
Suddenly the Oscar is gone. Pavel Talankin’s trophy disappears during a trip from the USA to Europe. Now the airline is reacting.
Maria Bode / t-online
Lufthansa has apologized to Russian director Pavel Talankin because his Oscar could no longer be found after a flight from New York to Frankfurt am Main. The airline announced on Friday that the statue was now “in our care” in Frankfurt am Main. We are already “in direct contact with the guest in order to arrange the personal handover as quickly as possible”.
Talankin won the Oscar in March for his documentary “A Nobody Against Putin.” As his co-director David Borenstein wrote on Instagram on Thursday, he was not allowed to take the statue on the plane at JFK Airport on Wednesday – Authorities told him the trophy could be used as a weapon.
That’s why it was transported in a cardboard box in the cargo hold. Talankin told the US website Deadline that he had flown at least a dozen times with the Oscar in his hand luggage: “There were never any problems.”
After landing in Germany, the statue could not be found. Borenstein continued: “An Oscar is missing.” He explained that he researched and couldn’t find another case where a person had to hand over an Oscar at check-in.
Therefore he asked the question: «Would Pavel have been treated the same way if he had been a famous actor? Or if he had spoken English fluently?” Finally he turned directly to Lufthansa: “Please help us find him.” Ultimately successful, as it turns out.
Lufthansa finally declared on Friday that “the careful and safe handling of our guests’ property is our top priority.” The internal review of how this came about is “currently not yet completed”. They “sincerely” regret the inconvenience caused and have asked the owner to apologize.