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PORTSIDE CULTURE

THE DOCUMENTARY ALEKSEI NAVALNY KNEW WE’D WATCH AFTER HIS DEATH  
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Alissa Wilkinson
February 16, 2024
The New York Times
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_ Film director Daniel Roher asks his subject a dark question: “If
you are killed — if this does happen — what message do you leave
behind to the Russian people?” _

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In the opening moments of “Navalny
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the Oscar-winning 2022 documentary about the Russian opposition leader
Aleksei A. Navalny, the director Daniel Roher asks his subject a dark
question.

“If you are killed — if this does happen — what message do you
leave behind to the Russian people?” the voice asks from behind the
camera.

Navalny’s ice-blue eyes narrow just a little, and he sighs. “Oh,
come on, Daniel,” he says in heavily accented English. “No. No
way. It’s like you’re making a movie for the case of my death.”
He pauses, then continues. “I’m ready to answer your question, but
please let it be another movie, Movie No. 2. Let’s make a thriller
out of this movie.”

“And in the case I would be killed,” he concludes with a wry
smile, “let’s make a boring movie of memory.”

On Friday, according to Russian authorities, Navalny, one of President
Vladimir V. Putin’s harshest critics, died in a federal
penitentiary
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the Arctic Circle. The official story released Friday morning was that
he had lost consciousness while taking a walk in the yard. Navalny’s
chief of staff, Leonid Volkov, publicly doubted the reports, writing
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“If this is true, then it’s not ‘Navalny died,’ but ‘Putin
killed Navalny,’ and only that. But I don’t trust them one
penny.”

If you saw the documentary (now streaming on Max
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you might have the same doubts. “Navalny” focuses largely on a
2020 poisoning attempt on Navalny’s life, apparently via the nerve
agent Novichok
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which Volkov described as “Putin’s signature poison.” Following
the film’s surprise Sundance premiere
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2022, it made headlines for an extended scene
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which Navalny and his team prank a Russian spy, Konstantin
Kudryavtsev, into confessing to the poisoning.

Navalny narrowly recovered and moved with his family to Germany, but
on Jan. 17, 2021, he returned to Moscow and was immediately detained
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The film shows crowds of supporters outside the airport, as well as
protests after his arrest. In the following months, Navalny was
charged with various crimes — including embezzlement, fraud and
extremism — and had been serving a long sentence in prison at the
time of his apparent death.

He asked for a thriller, and that’s what he got. “Navalny” is a
heart-pounding movie that ends in something like limbo. There’s a
sense in which every documentary is about someone who might be dead by
the time you see them onscreen, but mortality hangs unusually thickly
over “Navalny,” the man at its center having in essence died
already once. His charisma and ebullience contribute greatly to his
appeal, and so he both knows this fact and resents it.

About two-thirds of the way through, Navalny is relaxing between
interviews with Roher when a woman asks if he’s getting annoyed by
the questions about his past. No, Navalny tells her, in Russian: Roher
can ask whatever he wants. She says that’s fine, but that he seems
agitated.

Navalny stops and explains: “It’s just that I realize that he’s
filming it all for the movie he’s going to release if I get
whacked.”

He wasn’t exactly correct. A few months after its premiere,
“Navalny” made its U.S. streaming debut, where it continued to
garner attention. Meanwhile, alive but in prison, Navalny stayed
connected to the world. He’d built a strong social media presence,
and he and his team (who remain in exile) kept posting during his
imprisonment. And then, in March 2023, “Navalny” won best
documentary feature at the Oscars, further evidence that the world was
watching.

But if “Navalny” wasn’t intended as a postmortem, it’s
chilling to watch it after reports of his death. He knows what might
happen but doesn’t seem scared, just determined. The day of his
return to Moscow, he appears nervy and intent, but with fellow plane
passengers, he makes jokes about the weather, accepts their well
wishes and watches “Rick and Morty” as they descend. This is, you
realize, a resolutely unflappable man.

At the end of the film, Roher once again asks Navalny what message he
would leave for the Russian people if he was imprisoned or even
killed. Answering in English, Navalny responds, “My message for the
situation when I am killed is very simple: Not give up.” Recognizing
there’s more to the sentiment, Roher asks him to repeat his answer
in Russian.

“LISTEN, I’VE GOT SOMETHING VERY OBVIOUS TO TELL YOU,” NAVALNY
SAYS RAPIDLY AND FLUIDLY IN RUSSIAN, ACCORDING TO THE SUBTITLES.
HE’S LOOKING STRAIGHT INTO THE CAMERA AND PICKING UP STEAM AS HE
GOES. “YOU’RE NOT ALLOWED TO GIVE UP. IF THEY DECIDE TO KILL ME,
IT MEANS THAT WE ARE INCREDIBLY STRONG. WE NEED TO UTILIZE THIS POWER
TO NOT GIVE UP, TO REMEMBER WE ARE A HUGE POWER THAT IS BEING
OPPRESSED BY THESE BAD DUDES. WE DON’T REALIZE HOW STRONG WE
ACTUALLY ARE.”

Navalny takes a breath, then continues. “The only thing necessary
for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing. So don’t
be inactive.” He stares sternly into the camera, steel in his eyes.

And then his face cracks into a wide, joyful grin.

NAVALNY IS CURRENTLY STREAMING  ON MAX.

_Alissa Wilkinson [[link removed]] is a
Times movie critic. She’s been writing about movies since 2005. _

* Film
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* Film Review
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* Documentary Film
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* Navalny
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* Russian Opposition to Putin
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* Death of Navalny (21923
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* Daniel Roher
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