OSCARS 2023: Navalny (2022)

Vladimir Putin's authoritarian regime in Russia has only grown more concerning as the years go on. I'm worried enough about right-wing bullshit pushing our government in all sorts of scary directions in America. I can't imagine what it must be like to actually live in Russia. Unsurprisingly, there's been quite a few documentaries made about the human rights violations and general ratfuckery going on over there, which the Academy likes to notice. “Navalny” concerns one of the few people trying to take Putin on directly and the fallout of that decision. It's from director Daniel Roher, who has mostly done films on the plight of indigenous people save for a random rock doc. 

For those who might know, Alexei Navalny is the opposition leader in Russia. Getting popular through a Youtube news show, he's managed to build up a serious following. Putin pretends he doesn't know who he is. While campaigning, Navalny is poisoned with infamous nerve agent Novichok. (The favorite assassination method of Putin's cronies.) Alexei barely survives and begins his recovery in Germany. There, he begins an investigation into his own poisoning, quickly digging up the responsible party in a surprisingly direct fashion. Roher's cameras document the entire process. 

“Navalny” makes the case for its titular figure very early on. There's a certain magnetism to Alexei Navalny. You can see why he got popular on the internet. He's savvy about new media, playing along with TikTok trends and inviting his wife along for cutesy trips around town that get turned into Youtube videos. More than any of that, he's very charming. He's got a charisma about him and knows how to play to an audience. This makes up for the fact that Roher's film doesn't actually get into Navalny's politics very much. He's obviously opposed to Putin's authoritarian policies, and the things he says at rallies about personal freedoms and anti-corruption are compelling... But he was also at a rally with Nazis in the past, something Alexei is quick to dismiss and distance himself from. So I don't know how I really feel about the guy.  

Whether Alexei Navalny is someone I would be willing to vote for or not, I am happy to say that the film built around him is a good watch. Once it gets into the investigation of his attempted murder, “Navalny” becomes especially interesting. Playing out like a tense murder mystery, where the victim gets to solve his own murder, Navalny and his team dig into the available clues, starting with the very specific place that the very specific nerve agent they tried to kill him with is made. This escalates to one of those schemes that feels like it falls into the “so dumb, it might just work” category. A list of potential suspect is made, Navalny calls all of them, and starts asking questions. Amazingly, some one eventually starts talking. If it wasn't caught on film, I wouldn't believe it. You would think that literal government assassins would operate with more caution than that!

Then again, in the lead-up to this spectacular scene, Navalny and his guys talked about an incident they call “moscow4.” That refers to a Putin official who had “moscow1” set as his personal password. When that was discovered, he simply changed it to “moscow2” and then so on and so forth. This paints an interesting picture of Putin's Russia. First off, incompetence among government staff is apparently a global phenomenon. Secondly, the investigator Navalny recruits first tries to determine whether Navalny is, himself, a double-agent for Putin's government. This kind of maleficence isn't uncommon in the modern world of espionage, where disinformation and false leads make or break cases. Once the film makes it clear that Navalny is genuine, and that he's close to uncovered the truth... Well, if you follow the news, you know that Putin had Navalny locked up. That's the reality of life in Putin's Russia. Everyone has a secret, spies are everywhere, and a practical tyrant is happy to murder or lock up his enemies.

Whether Alexei Navalny will ever see freedom again is hard to say. It feels like unlikely to me, personally. I think a would-be dictator like Putin is too smart to let someone who might actually pose a threat to him free. The first scene of “Navalny” admits the possibility that the central figure could be dead before the documentary finishes filming. Regardless of how things play out, “Navalny” is still a compelling watch. Just to see a real life assassination plot get unraveled in real time makes it worth seeing. [7/10]