Title – Navalny (2022) 

Director – Daniel Roher (Ghosts of our Forest) 

Cast – Alexei Navalny, Yulia Navalnaya, Christo Grozev

Plot – Explores the aftermath of the attempted assassination of Russian political figure Alexei Navalny and his uphill battle to ensure his fight to give Russia a new leader is not overthrown. 

“Poison always leaves traces”

Review by Eddie on 11/10/2023

The winner of this years Best Documentary Feature at the Academy Awards, Daniel Roher’s doco is further proof that you probably don’t want to be entering into the Russian political space while Vladimir Putin is overseeing the country as Navalny shines a light on anti-Putin figure Alexei Navalny and his first hand experiences facing off against a terrible threat, one unafraid of committing deadly acts to ensure it remains in power. 

Far from a biopic or deep dive into the blue eyed Russian figure, Navalny plays out more like a Hollywood thriller as it hones in on the attempted assassination of Navalny that sets in motion a series of events that leads all the way too the Kremlin in an almost unbelievable expose of the type of things going on in the Russian space that is often spoken about but rarely proven in such undeniable ways as it is here in Roher’s documentary. 

From dark web exploration, phone conversations with hired assassins, run ins with law enforcement officers and a media frenzy of the likes that is usually reserved for A-list rock stars, Navalny is an experience filled with multiple angles and possibilities and while there is nothing particularly of note about how Roher deliver’s the material or shoots his subject/subject matters, there’s multiple thrills and chills throughout the film with Navalny himself making for a fascinating figure throughout, a figure with a steely determination to not let the system get him down as he fights for a cause he clearly believes in with all his might. 

Filmed over multiple years and put together with an extensive collection of material that Navalny and his hard working team produced for their own social media and web posts, there’s a lot to unpack in Navalny’s sub-100 minute runtime and there’s undoubtedly enough material here for a mini-series and while there is likely to be a Hollywood feature of this story in the years soon too come, at this stage Roher’s accessible and polished doco is a great entry level point to this tale, one that provides a further reminder to all about the troubles in the dominant European powerhouse and the roadblocks to any potential change. 

Final Say – 

More of a thriller than an investigational documentary, Navalny may not be doing anything outside of the box in a delivery sense but its intriguing subject and subject matter ensures it provides an often white knuckle ride to an emotionally charged finale. 

3 1/2 TikTok clips out of 5