Storyville

My Friend Sasha: A Very Russian Murder (2007x33)

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For three years before his death from poisoning, former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko had been making a documentary with his friend Andrei Nekrasov about authoritarianism in post-communist Russia. Here is that film, the unexpected ending of which made world headlines at the end of 2006. Andrei Nekrasov was a friend of Alexander Litvinenko. They'd met when Nekrasov was making a film about the effect of the Chechen war on children. The two became closer as Nekrasov became interested in Litvinenko's career - from KGB man to critic of Putin and, latterly, critic of the entire society which had allowed KGB-style practises to continue in post-communist Russia. As Litvinenko says in the film, "In the old days there were communists and there were criminals. Now there are only criminals." Nekrasov's film, which was completed for the BBC with the assistance of Leslie Woodhead, is an extraordinary document. He doesn't attempt to 'solve' the Litvinenko murder. Instead he re-creates Livinenko's life and, more importantly, his consciousness. And he tells us how terrifying it is to be an intelligent, critical individual in contemporary Russia. The real subject of the film is Nekrasov's's admiration for Litvinenko, who was a remarkable and courageous man. His wife, too, appears in the film, and she is also remarkable. This is a wholly unexpected film - an intimate portrait of a man who was murdered in the most bizarre public circumstances at the end of 2006.