In the United States, I have to remind myself sometimes how lucky we are politically. Rival political parties aren’t so opposed to one another that (even despite recent rhetoric) they’re building murder industrial complexes to kill each other. In Russia, to be the “anti-Putin” candidate really means putting your life on the line, which Alexei Navalny had done. Really: he was almost assassinated by Putin operatives in August 2020, which Navalny’s doc goes to incredible detail to prove.
The backbone of the documentary is the now imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. From early on you see why Vladimir Putin would be threatened by this man. Navalny is the political total package: extremely charming, an incredible public speaker, a clever social media user, and someone who knows how to use all 3 of these skills in conjunction. Pre-poisoning, Navalny used YouTube and TikTok to become a political superstar, since Russian state TV refused to acknowledge even his name. Post poisoning, those platforms give him a voice to use in Russia even if he’s not welcome there by Putin. Much of the movie’s dark sense of humor comes from Navalny’s anecdotes, matter of factly describing to outsiders how insidious the Russian propaganda apparatus is, and how power drunk it also is. Documentarian Daniel Roher tries to paint Alexei more complexly with some of his less altruistic political maneuvers (he is a little too lax toward white supremacy), but the reasoning for his choices if anything makes Navalny look smart and poised, really thinking through his choices.
But the meat of this Navalny doc comes from that fateful August 20 flight from Tomsk, where Navalny got deathly sick unexpectedly. After not a short amount of time in a coma, Alexei’s wife Yulia Navalnaya and Navalny’s lawyers convinced the Russian hospital to transfer the politician to Berlin, where he could receive objective healthcare. Because Navalny’s poison is probably undetectable, Alexei has to find other ways to prove his assassination attempt was coordinated from the top levels of the Russian government. Navalny joins forces with Bulgarian journalist Christo Gorzev (the other winner of this doc; every journalism organization should try to hire him) who has intricate knowledge via data of how the Russians might coordinate their poisoning. From there, we go on a very detailed, terrifying investigation into how calculated and sinister Putin’s attempt on Alexei’s life actually was. How do I know? Because of one of the movie highlights of 2022: one of the most exciting phone calls in movie history, where Navalny extracts the information he wants out of a gullible person in power. Rarely are “smoking poisons” so clearly laid out, but Roher’s doc has the fortune of capturing the big moment of discovering government corruption and abuse in real time.
Anyone who knows Alexei Navalny’s story knows the ending of his documentary is not going to be a happy one. That many powerful forces conspiring against you means the odds are impossibly not in your favor. However, Alexei Navalny’s bravery and intelligence prove without a doubt some of the worst fears about Russia’s terrifying governmental shows of power, forever changing diplomacy toward the country. Thank you, Alexei Navalny, for being heroic enough to speak truth to the epitome of brazen power: Vladimir Putin.