According to Guardian Nigeria
March 13, 2023 | 1:20 p.m
“Navalny,” a film that examines the poisoning of jailed Russian dissident Alexei Navalny, on Sunday won the Oscar for best documentary feature.
Shane Boris (L), winner of the Best Documentary Film award for “Navalny,” and Canadian actress Odessa Rae attend the 95th Vanity Fair Oscar Party at The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills, California on March 12, 2023. (Photo by Michael TRAN/AFP)
“Navalny,” a film that examines the poisoning of jailed Russian dissident Alexei Navalny, on Sunday won the Oscar for best documentary feature.
Canadian director Daniel Roher’s film looks at the political rise of Navalny, the most prominent opponent of Russian President Vladimir Putin, poisoning with the nerve agent Novichok during a trip to Siberia in 2020 and the subsequent investigation.
“There is someone who cannot be with us here tonight – Alexei Navalny, the leader of the Russian opposition, who remains in solitary confinement for what he called – I want to make sure that his words are true – Vladimir Putin’s unjust war of aggression in Ukraine,” Roher told the audience as he received the golden statuette.
Navalny, 46, who has been held for the past two years in a maximum-security prison outside Moscow after being accused of embezzlement, has accused Putin of being behind the poisoning attack.
“My husband was imprisoned just for telling the truth. My husband was imprisoned just for defending democracy,” said Yulia Navalnaya.
The film, which premieres at the Sundance film festival in January 2022, won a BAFTA last month.
It beats “All That Breathing,” “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed,” “Fire of Love” and “A House Made of Splinters.”