Navalny

Navalny (2022) is a documentary you can watch online on iFILM. Director Daniel Roher filmed his subject during the months he spent recovering in a German hospital, after a military-grade nerve agent nearly ended his life.

The camera catches the Russian opposition figure between IV drips and physiotherapy — and at the moment he sits down with investigative journalist Christo Grozev to work out exactly who tried to kill him, and how. The Bulgarian reporter spreads phone records and flight logs across the table, and then comes the scene the whole film builds toward: the target dials one of the alleged assassins, gives a false name, and the man calmly walks him through the details. His family is never far from frame — wife Yulia, children Dasha and Zakhar, and the team around him.

The film took the Academy Award for best documentary, and it earned it by capturing a story almost in real time, before anyone knew how it would end. What grips you here is not editing tricks but the raw tension of an investigation unfolding on screen. If you follow documentaries about modern Russia, this is worth your evening. Stream Navalny (2022) online on iFILM.