In Memoriam: Alexander Litvinenko 2007
Distributed by Cinema Guild, 115 West 30th Street, Suite 800, New York, NY 10001; 212-685-6242
Produced by Backlight for VPRO Television
Directed by Jos de Putter, Masha Novikova
DVD, color, 55 min.
College - Adult
European Studies, Political Science
Date Entered: 03/26/2008
Reviewed by Jessica Schomberg, Minnesota State University, MankatoIn Memoriam is a documentary about the defection and assassination of ex-FSB agent Alexander Litvinenko in London in 2006.
In interviews with the filmmakers in 2004, Litvinenko compared the political history of Russia with a detective novel. That theme, searching for the truth, is carried throughout the documentary. The film intersperses interviews and news footage about Litvinenko’s death with interviews with Litvinenko in which he describes his work for the FSB, his time as a Russian soldier in Chechnya, his refusal to commit murder on order and his subsequent arrest, and his investigation into the bombing of a Moscow apartment building—officially blamed on Chechen extremists despite evidence to the contrary, and which led to the second Chechen war.
This memorial of the life and death of Alexander Litvinenko uses news footage along with interviews with Litvinenko, his wife and father, assassinated journalist Anna Politkovskaya, Chechen political exile Akhmed Zakayev, and others. Dialog is primarily in Russian with English subtitles.
Of interest to students of modern Russian history and politics, In Memoriam is recommended for college and general audiences.