Poisoned by Polonium: The Litvinenko File

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12/25/2014 Gripping, insightful but horrific. See more 08/30/2010 so boring, all in subtitles. too much russian. That would not be in itself bad it just didn't have a clear topic and couldn't keep focus. wanted to know about the guy who was poisoned. Not about the whole history of Russia after the fall of communism, and war crimes in Chechnia. See more 07/07/2010 อเมริกาปกครองโดยบรรษัทยักษ์ใหญ่ สยามประเทศปกครองโดยอำมาตย์ จีนปกครองโดยพรรคคอมมิวนิสต์ รัสเซียเหนือกว่าทั้งหมดปกครองโดยอาชญากร....... See more 03/16/2010 Must have for everyone interested in Russia. And for the others as well, to see that this country is governed by criminals. See more Walter M @Harlequin68 09/19/2009 "Poisoned by Polonium: The Litvinenko File" is an eye-opening documentary that starts with the poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko, a former FSB agent who blew the whistle on corruption and violence in the FSB and moved to London for political asylum. Documentarian Andrei Nekrasov is in a unique position to comment on the case as he had previously befriended Litvinenko and had interviewed him on film on more than one occasion, giving an inside look at the power structure of Russia. Aside from this testimony, there is a string of circumstantial evidence linking a disturbing chain of events starting with the bombing of an apartment building in Moscow in 1999 that killed over 100 people and where the bodies of two FSB officers were found. The powers that be used this as a rationale for the murderous invasion of Chechnya and a subsequential crackdown on dissent that included the murder of journalists including Anna Politkovskaya. So while Russia has the democratic facade that make it and its former president Vladimir Putin attractive to western leaders, the reality could not be more different. In other words, new boss, same as the old boss. See more 04/20/2009 I'm giving this film a much higher rating than it deserves because I think that the subject matter is extremely important. The movie alleges a number of disturbingly plausible claims in the name of Litvinenko which the free world continues to be grossly negligent at verifying or disproving. Bottom line: the film asserts that Putin is the real deal--essentially a tyrant, brought to power via an FSB staged war in which he could show how "decisive" and "strong" he is by murdering many hundreds of civilians in the name of "Russia." All the while he is steeped in hundreds of millions of dollars of racketeered dollars that he has been amassing at least since the early 90s. Anyone who speaks out against him and has a chance of being heard is murdered. And no one can really investigate anything because he's the head of state--not only politically but also the head of a large network of criminal agents who control every level of power in Russia. As a film, I thought it was really weak. The cinematography was "artistic" but it was unclear to what degree that "artisticness" contributed to the overall message of the film. The information and the allegations were presented in a scattered and incoherent manner which gave them some short term emotional impact but made it hard to figure out what exactly the director was trying to say. The film was criticized as being "too emotional" but I think that the "emotional" part was sorely lacking. Intellectually, it is chilling and compelling. But the use of shocking imagery and inflammatory rhetoric caused a very strong "anti" reaction--at least on my part. If the facts speak for themselves, why do we need pictures of maimed Chechen babies? Why do we need a long scene of a stripper to show us what capitalism is? Why do we need to be shown SO MANY charred corpses? After watching this film, you can't help but be indignant about the world's naive acceptance of the current Russian regime but you lack too much feeling for Litvinenko and the others killed by Putin's henchmen. It seems to me that the film had a perfect opportunity to deeply humanize this issue as well as presenting the case against Putin however they wanted to. In my opinion they blew it on both counts. So I recommend that everyone watch this film but don't expect it to work all that well as a film or to tell you the whole story. See more Read all reviews

Poisoned by Polonium: The Litvinenko File

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