Cannes. Rebellion: The Litvinenko Affair.

"Johnny Depp is lined up to play murdered Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko in the film of a book that still has no ending," reports Jason Burke in the Observer. Meantime, Rebellion: The Litvinenko Affair has screened as a last-minute addition to the Cannes official selection. It's directed by Andreï Nekrasov, "a close friend of the former spy and in effect accuses the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, of organising the murder, as well as of embezzling humanitarian funds and laundering profits from the mafia."

Charles Ealy has more at the Austin Movie Blog: "The bombings of the Moscow apartments in 1999 were allegedly staged to win political support for Putin, who wanted to invade Chechnya, according to various people interviewed in the documentary... [which] also raises questions about Putin's involvement in the rising number of slain Russian journalists, especially in the death of one who was investigating the Moscow bombings."

On a related note, Steven Lee Myers has a piece in the New York Times on Russia's inability to wish this story away: "In proceeding after proceeding, Russia's actions have withered under the scrutiny of international justice. As a result, the very concepts of law and justice have become touchstones for larger fears about how Mr Putin amasses and uses power, and whether he is returning Russia to habits that brought Europe grief in the past."

Updates, 5/30: "Though the film seethes with anger at how poorly Russian citizens have been treated (it claims that almost 50 per cent of the adult population has been in jail at some time, and that state plundering of national assets is happening at a time when 50 per cent of people live below the poverty line), it also supplies a necessary historical dimension to that rage," writes the Telegraph's Sukhdev Sandhu. "Vladimir Putin, who profited while failing to get food to the starving inhabitants of St Petersbourg in 1991, comes in for special attack.... [Litvinenko] comes across as no conspiracy theorist, nor even an enemy of patriotism, but a decent man spurred to defiance by the culture of corruption in which he found himself."

"Nekrasov never quite manages to paint a portrait of his subject as a personality, while the dense onslaught of data and accusations - hard to substantiate in a documentary of this kind - means that, while painting a horrific picture of contemporary Russian politics, the film is likely to leave the viewer perplexed," writes Jonathan Romney for Screen Daily. "But as a provocation, and a spur to further media discussions, the film demands to be viewed, albeit with a degree of critical scepticism."

Posted by dwhudson at May 27, 2007 10:33 AM