«Nawalny», Attack with Putin’s «signature»

By Karin Hiebaum
International Journalist

With his documentary «Nawalny,» Canadian filmmaker Daniel Roher delivers a thriller centered on the poisoning of Russian opposition figure Alexei Nawalny with a nerve agent from the Novichok group. In the process, he examines the workings of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s regime from the perspective of the recovering politician and shows how ruthlessly it deals with its opponents.

At the beginning, Navalny sits casually with his arms propped up on a table and answers Roher’s questions in a routine and mischievous manner. One question throws him for a loop: «If you are killed, if it really comes to that, what message will you leave for the Russian people?»

The scene forms the pivotal point of the documentary, for which Roher accompanied Nawalny with his camera over several months in 2020 in Freiburg, Germany. Navalny confidently counters the question: if he were to die, the filmmaker should cut a «boring portrait» from the material – if not a «thriller.» «Nawalny,» presented at this year’s Sundance Festival and already enthusiastically received internationally, has become the latter.

Novichok: Putin’s «signature»

The back story is quickly rolled up: Navalny, who spared no political alliances to spread his core themes of fighting corruption – especially in Putin’s closest circle – and democratizing Russia, was systematically discredited by pro-government media; a montage of talk shows and interviews with Putin, who systematically refuses to speak Navalny’s name, suffices as quick and striking evidence of this.

New documentary film «Navalny».

So the opposition figure shifted to a kind of social media guerrilla strategy: his most important forum became his Thursday YouTube show, his smartphone a constant companion. Then came August 2020, Navalny collapsed during a flight from Siberia to Moscow, screaming in pain, the footage filmed along with smartphones hard to bear.

The treated doctors spoke of a circulatory disease, the media loyal to the regime discredited Nawalny as a drug addict and a malingerer, for example. In retrospect, Navalny says that he felt «too safe» because of his fame. Only by exerting great pressure did Navalny’s wife Yulia and his team succeed in having him transferred to Germany. Only a short time later was it officially confirmed that it was a case of poisoning with a nerve agent from the Novichok group: «It’s as if Putin had left his signature on the assassination attempt,» says one of Nawalny’s comrades-in-arms in an interview.

Investigating in its own assassination attempt
The documentary works with a cleverly fractured proximity to Navalny. In passages shot at Vienna’s Cafe Sperl, Christo Grosev has his say. The investigative data journalist for the platform Bellingcat tells how he used data bought from Russia on the dark web, such as call logs from phone providers and passenger lists from flights, to narrow down a group of suspects who might be responsible for the attack.

Investigative journalist Christo Grozev (Bellingcat) is helping Nawalny investigate the attack on him
Grozev makes no secret of how dubious Nawalny seemed to him in the beginning; in turn, Nawalny reveals how difficult it was for him to trust the investigative journalist in the beginning. The highlight of the documentary is how Grozsev and Navalny together uncover the attempted murder and publish their findings together with a research network of, among others, «Der Spiegel» and «El Pais.»

«The system will collapse»

But also the bitter consequences for the time being for Nawalny are not concealed: When he returned to Russia in January 2021, handcuffs were still clicking at the airport. Several trials and a hunger strike followed.

At least Roher is sure that the last chapter of the story has not yet been written. «The system will collapse, maybe next year or in two or in three years,» the director said this week in a discussion at the Austrian premiere of the film. Regularly, it can be seen in domestic cinemas from Friday.

He thus contradicted the top diplomat Emil Brix, who was also present, who had previously said «that we will have to live with Putin and his regime for a long time to come». The Ukrainian war was not Putin’s war, but Russia’s, said the former Austrian ambassador in Moscow, referring to the Kremlin leader’s rising popularity ratings.

The treated doctors spoke of a circulatory disease, the media loyal to the regime discredited Nawalny, for example, as a drug addict and a malingerer. In retrospect, Navalny says that he felt «too safe» because of his fame. Only by exerting great pressure did Navalny’s wife Yulia and his team succeed in having him transferred to Germany. Only a short time later was it officially confirmed that it was a case of poisoning with a nerve agent from the Novichok group: «It’s as if Putin had left his signature on the assassination attempt,» says one of Nawalny’s comrades-in-arms in an interview.

Investigating in its own assassination attempt
The documentary works with a cleverly fractured proximity to Navalny. In passages shot at Vienna’s Cafe Sperl, Christo Grosev has his say. The investigative data journalist for the platform Bellingcat tells how he used data bought from Russia on the dark web, such as call logs from phone providers and passenger lists from flights, to narrow down a group of suspects who might be responsible for the attack.

Investigative journalist Christo Grozev
Niki Waltl
Investigative journalist Christo Grozev (Bellingcat) is helping Nawalny investigate the attack on him
Grozev makes no secret of how dubious Nawalny seemed to him in the beginning; in turn, Nawalny reveals how difficult it was for him to trust the investigative journalist in the beginning. The highlight of the documentary is how Grozsev and Navalny together uncover the attempted murder and publish their findings together with a research network of, among others, «Der Spiegel» and «El Pais.»

«The system will collapse»

But also the bitter consequences for the time being for Nawalny are not concealed: When he returned to Russia in January 2021, handcuffs were still clicking at the airport. Several trials and a hunger strike followed.

Scene of the documentary film «Nawalny».
Polyfilm

Phone call with own assassin: Navalny keeps his nerve
Elites: «driving force» in Russia.

«As far as the common people are concerned, I agree with you,» investigative journalist Grosev told Brix. But, he said, the situation is different among the Russian elite, because of the enormous cost of the Ukraine war. «The driving force in Russia has always been the elites,» he said. Nevertheless, he acknowledged the impact of Russian propaganda, which is extremely professionally done because it touches people emotionally.

«Recently, I spent an evening watching Russian television, and afterwards I felt that maybe I wasn’t right after all.» That, he said, could explain why so many people in Russia support the war. In any case, with «Nawalny,» Roher has succeeded in making an extraordinary documentary that, while clearly taking a position, delivers Nawalny as a probe for an inside view of Putin’s regime with its skillfully distanced narrative style.

Link:
Nawalny (IMDb)