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.
