Navalny review – extraordinary documentary about the attempt to kill Putin’s rival

In August 2020, Alexei Navalny, Russian opposition leader and general thorn in the side of Vladimir Putin, was taken gravely ill on a flight home to Moscow from Siberia. An emergency landing saved him; Navalny was hospitalised and treated for what turned out to be poisoning with a nerve agent. He fled to Germany to recuperate in exile, and through an undercover investigation that could have been lifted from a political thriller, he and his team gradually pieced together the facts behind the assassination attempt that nearly claimed his life.

Documentary film-maker Daniel Roher’s tenacious camera follows throughout. It’s a genuinely exciting piece of storytelling, a propulsive real-life quest for truth driven by ingenious tech-geeks and the disarming force of Navalny’s personality.

• Navalny is available in Curzon cinemas on 12 April for a special one-day event and will be available on demand followed by a UK wide release on 15 April