This is part of a Globe and Mail series marking the anniversary of Russia’s invasion, in which authors from Ukraine, Canada and beyond imagine what could come next.
Daniel Roher is the director of Navalny, which recently won the BAFTA Award for best documentary and is nominated for Best Documentary Feature Film at the Oscars.
I have no idea how the war in Ukraine is going to end, but I do know that the moral clarity of good Russians, those who stand opposed to the war, will be a pivotal component to its cessation. Nobody embodies the spirit, or pays the consequences, of Russian opposition to this war more than my friend Alexey Navalny.
The last time I saw Mr. Navalny was Jan. 17, 2021, the last day he was a free man. I had spent nearly three months with the Russian opposition leader, shooting a documentary with him and his family. He was recovering from a near-fatal assassination attempt in a bucolic German village. After our last day of filming, he and his wife, Yulia, flew back to Russia, straight into the jaws of a tiger.
Mr. Navalny was arrested the moment he entered passport control. Almost a year later, as he languished in prison, our top-secret documentary premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. Three weeks later, Vladimir Putin launched the brutal expansion to his war in Ukraine.
As missiles pummelled Kyiv, we threw away our carefully calibrated strategy for a summer release and raced to get our film out immediately. We took it on a world tour. After each screening, I would be approached by a lineup of teary-eyed young Russians, many of whom were newly self-exiled to avoid draft notices.
One young woman in Tel Aviv poignantly expressed that Mr. Navalny made her think of that famous Leonard Cohen quote: “There’s a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in.” The many young Russians who were able to see our documentary (the film is banned in Russia) could, if only for a moment, dispel the endless shame their nationality now evoked. It was clear, in our film, they found a small crack. In Mr. Navalny, they saw a small flickering light, in a war’s worth of darkness.
During postscreening Q&As, one of the frequent questions I’m asked is if I would ever make a sequel to the film. Audiences are surprised to hear that I do in fact dream of making one. My idea for the next instalment seems near impossible, as it takes place in a hypothetical future when Mr. Putin is gone, the war in Ukraine is over, and Russia is ready for a brighter future.
My sequel imagines the first free and fair democratic election for the presidency of the Russian Federation. In this dream project, I will follow presidential candidate Navalny as he traverses the country pitching a vision of his beautiful Russia of the future, a vision he once described to me as a metaphysical cross between Canada and Lithuania. Right now, my sequel seems more like a work of fantasy than a documentary.
An end to the war in Ukraine must also come with an end to Mr. Putin’s regime. When Ukraine emerges victorious, or when the war concludes with a negotiated settlement, it will only be the first step. What is needed is the promise of free and fair elections in Russia, and liberty for those who oppose Mr. Putin – including Mr. Navalny.
Today, Mr. Navalny has become the loudest antiwar advocate in Russia. And he is being punished for his moral clarity in the face of unspeakable evil. He is in permanent solitary confinement. He has lost visitation rights from his wife and children, and can no longer speak to his lawyers privately. He is being held in torturous conditions intended to destroy his body, mind and spirit.
Despite this, Mr. Navalny’s trademark humour remains intact, and his spirit unbroken. For millions of Russians, Mr. Navalny’s resilience represents the crack where the light gets in – hope for the great Russia of the future.
Mr. Navalny’s world view is oriented toward optimism. That’s what he demands of his supporters. So, channelling that spirit, I hope that if anyone can survive this brutal ordeal, it’s Alexey Navalny. I hope that one day, when there is peace, and Mr. Putin is gone, I’ll get to shoot my sequel.