In 2021, Dmitry Muratov, editor-in-chief of the independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta, was jointly awarded the Nobel peace prize, alongside the Philippines’ journalist Maria Ressa. It marked, said the Nobel committee, “another existential point for democracy”, and the award was a rallying cry for truth, freedom of the press and holding power to account. The Price of Truth is a compelling documentary that follows Muratov and his work as the Russian invasion of Ukraine begins, giving real insight into how the war is seen on Russian soil, as well as internationally.
First, we meet Muratov, a brisk and bear-like man under immeasurable strain, who nevertheless finds moments of dry humour among the horrors, in the immediate aftermath of an attack in the carriage of a train in Moscow in April 2022. A man has poured red paint laced with acetone all over Muratov, damaging his eyesight, while another filmed the assault. The message, as he understood it, was: “Shut up, and keep your newspaper quiet.” At the time, Novaya Gazeta was still in operation; by the end of this film, every workaround that Muratov tried to find, in order to keep it publishing, has come to a dead end.
