Navalny

A documentary about an investigation into a poisoning. Alexei Navalny runs an opposition in Russia. He publishes investigations into corruption, his videos are watched by millions, and he is kept off the ballot. In August 2020 he collapses on an aircraft. The plane makes an emergency landing and he falls into a coma. He is taken to Germany. The laboratory result is clear; the substance used is a nerve agent. The film crew is with him at exactly that moment. The director had been shooting another documentary, and when it happened the camera stayed inside. From there the film becomes an investigation. A journalism group matches telephone records, flight data and hotel registrations. A list of a team emerges. The names and travel records of people who had been following Navalny for years are found. Then the film reaches its best known scene. Navalny telephones the names on the list one by one, presents himself as a senior official, and asks for a report. One of them talks. The man describes what was done, where the substance was placed, and why it did not work; the conversation is recorded. What the narrative is interested in is not politics but evidence: the film presents the claim not as an argument but as a file built step by step. The documentary is not critical. Navalny's past nationalist associations are covered by a single question and the director does not pursue it. The last section describes the return. He decides to go back to Russia and is arrested at the airport. The film won the Academy Award for Best Documentary. Daniel Roher directed. Who it is for: anyone who likes journalistic documentary and investigations from recent history. Who it is not for: anyone expecting a balanced portrait; the film stands on its subject's side and passes over the hard questions.