A riveting new film, made in secret, details the harrowing ordeal of Alexei Navalny, the
Russian opposition leader poisoned with novichok
Alexei Navalny, the Russian opposition leader whose arrest in January 2021 inspired the country’s biggest
protests in years, is a man accustomed to cameras. Tall, handsome, sandy-haired, with an expressively hangdog face, he’s a pro at seeming both disarming and indomitable while being filmed, which is often – in news anchor style for his popular weekly
YouTube series investigating
Kremlin corruption; at rallies where he leads crowds in a “Putin! Thief!” call and response; on the plane from
Germany back home to
Moscow, surrounded by media as he prepares to confront the government that tried to poison him in 2020. Besieged by
smartphone cameras, Navalny offers calm statements while storing his luggage in overhead bins. “As usual,” he says, “our government can be characterized as afraid.”
Navalny, a 98-minute documentary from Canadian director Daniel Roher, details in cogent, stressful, riveting
fashion just how scared the Kremlin is of Navalny, arguably the biggest threat to Vladimir Putin’s power at home. The bulk of the film, produced by
CNN Films and
HBO Max with a surprise Sundance premiere this week, is embedded with Navalny and his close team in their Black Forest hideout during the second half of 2020, as they unravel the assassination plot against him and prepare to go public with explosive findings.