Documentary ‘Navalny,’ about dissident fighting Kremlin, wins Oscar

Director Daniel Roher of the Best Documentary Feature film nominee "Navalny" talks with jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny's daughter Daria Navalnaya as they arrive on the champagne-colored red carpet during the Oscars arrivals at the 95th Academy Awards in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, U.S., March 12, 2023. (REUTERS)

Yulia Navalny, wife of jailed dissident Alexei Navalny, speaks next to her daughter Daria and director Daniel Roher after "Navalny" was awarded for Best Documentary Feature Film during the Oscars show at the 95th Academy Awards in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, U.S., March 12, 2023. (REUTERS)

• Navalny is a media savvy, anti-corruption campaigner in his mid-40s who has for many years been a headache for Russian President Vladimir Putin

NEW YORK: “Navalny,” a look at a Russian opposition leader following an attempt on his life, has won the Oscar for best documentary feature.
Director Daniel Roher’s portrait of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny has shadowy operatives, truth-seeking journalists, conspiracy theories and Soviet-era poisons. It is a film with obvious political poignance following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Navalny is a media savvy, anti-corruption campaigner in his mid-40s who has for many years been a headache for Russian President Vladimir Putin. He’s released numerous reports about corruption in Russia and the Putin administration and become a popular and rallying figure among like-minded Russians.
Roher was able to sit down with Navalny during his brief stay in Berlin in 2020 and early 2021 as he was recovering from being poisoned and seeking the truth behind the unsuccessful murder attempt. The media has called Navalny the Kremlin’s fiercest critic. And he is seemingly undaunted by the intimidation and the arrests he’s endured.
The film was a hit at the Sundance Film Festival, where it won both the documentary audience award and the festival favorite award
“Navalny” beat the other documentary nominees “All That Breathes’; “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed”; “Fire of Love”; and “A House Made of Splinters.”