This documentary is a provocative account of the final days of ex-Federal Security Service officer, Russian dissident and writer Aleksandr Litvinenko as well as an engrossing look into the tense political situation in Russia. In November 2006 the world was shocked by photographs of a weakened and bald Litvinenko fighting for his life in a UK hospital.

Despite a rigorous investigation, it wasn’t until after his death on the 24th of November 2006, that results revealed that Litvinenko, a former secret service operative granted political asylum in the UK, was the rare victim of polonium-210 poisoning. In this shocking film started two years before Litvinenko’s death, directors Jos de Putter and Masha Novikova boldly chronicle the dissident turned activist’s story from his time as a lieutenant-colonel in the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation, to his arrest for publicly speaking out against his superiors and ultimately to his decision to flee his native Russia. Composed of candid and riveting interviews with Litvinenko – some of which feature the stoic thinker prophesizing his own death – Litvinenko’s father and Akhmad Zakayev, the ex-Foreign Minister of Chechen Republic Ichkeria in exile, this ripped from the headlines, eye-opening documentary is both a political tour de force and an example of masterful filmmaking.