Litvinenko documentary rises to Cannes prominence

Russian director Andrei Nekrasov’s recent film, “Rebellion: The Litvinenko Case”, which he completed for the BBC in the spring, was given a special slot at this year’s Cannes film festival. Despite some of its flaws, the film is an interesting insight into Litvinenko’s thinking and its screening was a good PR stunt for the festival. Read an earlier post about this film.

The decision about the film’s Cannes screening was made only three weeks prior to the festival, but before British prosecutors named Andrei Lugovoi as a suspect in Litvinenko’s murder and demanded his extradition from Russia. The film has so far only been seen in the UK (and for a few weeks on Google Video) but it will now be shown internationally. This will not please Russian authorities, even though the documentary only states the obvious about their state of democracy.