It’s wild that a week ago Sundance 2022 audiences didn’t even know Navalny was in the festival. Yet, here we are with Daniel Roher’s docu-thriller about Russian opposition leader and anti-corruption activist Alexei Navalny scoring not only the U.S. Documentary Competition Audience Award but also the Festival Favorite Award. Perhaps filmgoers didn’t have time to set their expectations too high, or maybe it’s just a testament to the extraordinariness of the film. We think it’s more due to the latter. Not to say we didn’t have issues with Navalny, but it’s timely and contains a treasure trove of riveting moments that leave an indelible impression.

Sundance sprung the news that Navalny was being added to the U.S. Documentary Competition lineup late last Monday. A little over 24 hours later, the film had its world premiere. Much like the New York Film Festival did with Citizenfour, Sundance kept Navalny under wraps because of its highly charged and urgent subject matter. The film’s main character, who is now sitting in a Russian jail, is so controversial in his homeland that Putin won’t utter his name in public.

As for the film itself, Navalny picks up in late 2020. A 44-year-old Navalny is recuperating in a small town near Germany’s Black Forest and plotting his return to Russia. A few months earlier, Navalny fell ill aboard a flight from Siberia to Moscow. His aircraft was subsequently diverted to Omsk, and he was taken to the hospital. Suspecting it was an assassination attempt, Navalny’s family successfully petitioned to have him transferred to Germany for care. After medical examination, the German authorities confirmed Navalny was poisoned with the Soviet-era nerve agent Novichok.

Christo Grozev, another character in this story, is based a few hundred miles away in Austria. He works for the open-source investigative website Bellingcat. Upon learning of Navalny’s poisoning, he launches his own inquiry to find the culprits. Using his data tools, he narrows the field down to a small group of Russian suspects. His leg-work is something straight out of an espionage crime drama.

Confident of his findings, Grovez reaches out to Navalny’s team. It’s also around this time that Grovez tips Roher off that there might be a documentary idea here. The filmmaker springs into action and captures some of Navalny and Grovez’s first in-person meetings.

Navalny, now equipped with enough proof that there was a Russian plot against him, starts planning his next move. His team contacts several major news outlets and orchestrates a simultaneous media blitz. However, before the bomb drops, he wants to make a few prank phone calls.

Sitting at a table in front of a wall with photos of all the “bad” guys, Navalny starts dialing phone numbers. He hopes he can get someone on the line who will reveal details of the poisoning plot. The first few men hang-up within the first 30 seconds. Undeterred, Navalny moves on to a scientist from the chemical lab that produces the Novichok. As luck will have it, the man is sick with COVID-19 and not thinking clearly. He believes Navalny is one of Putin’s cronies and confirms the murderous plan with specifics. At this moment, Roher’s film transforms from a competent documentary thriller to an unforgettable work of nonfiction filmmaking.

As the film continues, Navalny prepares for and makes his return to Russia. The documentary includes footage of Navalny traveling by plane inter-cut with scenes on the ground at the Moscow airport as his supporters wait for his flight to land. Roher deftly composes this sequence to maximize the suspense.

Roher does a noteworthy job with the film’s construction, but the documentary’s strength rests with its main character. Smart, charming, witty, handsome, and passionate, the Putin critic is a perfect leading man. He’s media savvy and feels at home in front of the camera.

The filmmaker, however, may yield too much control to Navalny. The film relies heavily on the observational footage shot in Germany and interviews with Navalny and his team. There are no real opposing viewpoints. The only moment of counterbalance comes when Roher asks Navalny a few pointed questions about his family, how he got into politics, and his affiliation with nationalism and the far right. But Navalny is the only one answering these questions. Roher doesn’t dig any deeper. He doesn’t cover how Amnesty International revoked and later reinstated Navalny’s ‘Prisoner of Conscience’ status. He also doesn’t go into detail about the charges being brought against Navalny by the Russian government.

This isn’t the first time Roher has delivered a documentary coming from one man’s perspective. The filmmaker’s previous film about The Band, Once Were Brothers, drew criticism for only presenting frontman Robbie Robertson’s point of view.

As for Navalny, we wonder if the politician merits a co-director’s credit. There are scenes where we question their authenticity. For example, the camera follows Navalny and his wife, Yulia Navalnaya, as they go for a walk and stop to feed a miniature horse. It’s a sweet moment. However, we thought it odd that they speak English to each other rather than their native Russian. Surely when they are in private, they don’t speak English. Was this light-hearted and humanizing exchange done for the benefit of the camera?

In the end, these are small quibbles. Navalny is otherwise a timely and important doc that keeps you riveted from beginning to end. It exists as a tribute to a man who won’t give up. Rather than live safely in Germany, he returned to his home country to continue his battle against authoritarianism. As a result, he now sits in a jail cell.

If you weren’t able to catch Navalny at Sundance 2022, CNN and HBO Max will distribute the film later this year.

You can watch a clip from the film below (clip removed, updated with trailer). It features Navalny’s first reactions to learning he was poisoned.

Photo credit: CNN FILMS