Review: Navalny

Opening scene of Navalny, following the politician's career

On Monday I went to watch the matinee screening of Navalny, which recently won Best Documentary in the Academy Awards. Most of the audience were seniors and at one point I thought I was the youngest in the room, and then some people in their 20s walked in.

Alexi Navalny is? was? the official opposition to Russian President Vladimir Putin. He is a charismatic lawyer and politician, tall, handsome, has a wry sense of humour and loves his wife Yulia, as well as their two children.

The film starts with director Daniel Roher asking, so if you die, what message would you like to leave for the people? Navalny says we're not going to make a movie about my death. It's going to be a thriller.

Roher felt a duty to film as much as possible

Roher says in interviews the film was set up to be a thriller from the get-go -- he wanted to do it when he followed the news of Navalny's poisoning in Siberia and was recovering in Germany.

That's where the Canadian director started filming Navalny, tracing his career as a politician, offering a viable alternative to Putin and inspiring millions of Russians to stand up to the authoritarian regime.

Roher has said he was very aware of filming a politician who knows how to use social media and make videos, which is why Navalny the documentary is a well rounded portrait of the man, showing a wide range of emotions and situations from him convulsing on a plane to joking with his daughter.

As a result Roher asks provoking questions, particularly about Navalny associating with far right groups with Nazi leanings. Navalny answers them in a way that makes viewers squeamish about him standing together with these people, but at the same time understanding his need to reach out to all stakeholders regardless of their political views.

Viewers get to know Navalny's team who do investigative stories on Putin, and meet an outsider, Christo Grozev, chief investigator for Bellingcat, an online investigative journalism group.

The moment Navalny gets shocking intelligence

Grozev is Bulgarian but has worked in the media in Russia, speaks Russian and admits he is a computer nerd. He investigates Navalny's poisoning and through analysing phone logs and flight passenger lists, is able to name the people who tried to kill Navalny.

The most dramatic scene is a tense 15 minutes watching Navalny call up some of these people trying to get them to tell him why they did this to him and how. Two or three recognise his voice; Navalny changes tack and pretends to be the deputy of a commander and needs to know the details of the botched assassination attempt to write up for a report.

A man who is a specialist in making chemical weapons is sick at home with Covid-19 and not in the right frame of mind begins to tell Navalny how it all transpired...

There is also palpable tension watching Navalny when he takes a flight home to Moscow, journalists filming him through the whole flight. The constant barrage of cameras is vital to witness how he is whisked away at passport control. Did he know that would be the last time he would hug and kiss his wife? Did he think he would be let off easily? Or was he prepared for this all along?

Grozev is on Russia's most wanted list

Meanwhile protesters at the airport waiting for Navalny are roughed up and arrested by the police -- it is a terrifying reminder of how protesters were treated in Hong Kong in 2019, and how repressive these two regimes are. One Russian protester taken away demands to know what she has done wrong and none of the officers reply. Others have their arms twisted and broken as they are taken away.

Today Navalny is in solitary confinement in a gulag in Siberia, with hardly any contact with his family for months now. He is allowed two books to read and once a day can write with a pencil and paper for half an hour. There is no sign of when his sentence will end, nor if he can even have civilian doctors treat him for his back pains. He had flu symptoms before and has lost a lot of weight. 

His lawyer managed to tell him that he had won an Oscar.

American-educated daughter Daria has told CNN's Anderson Cooper that the government is slowly killing her father.

Meanwhile Putin has put Grozev on Russia's most wanted list, making it very stressful for him to travel and do his work, but he is undeterred in continuing to cover more injustices. 

Yulia gives a message to her husband at Oscars

At the Oscars, Yulia, who is considered the unofficial first lady of Russia, wore red -- her signature colour, meant to invoke Russia. 

"My husband is in prison just for defending democracy," she said before addressing her husband directly: "Alexi, I am dreaming of the day when you will be free and our country will be free. Stay strong, my love. Thank you."

Navalny

Directed by Daniel Roher

98 minutes