“Rebellion: The Litvinenko Case” Added to the Official Selection, Out of Competition

Rebellion: The Litvinenko Case, a documentary on the former Russian agent assassinated by poisoning in London, was added to the lineup of the Official Selection of the Cannes Festival today. It screens at 10:30pm Saturday, May 26 Out of Competition. This sizzling indictment of the Russian regime was co-directed by Olga Konskaya and Andreï Nekrasov, a close friend of Litvinenko, who was with him for the two years prior to his death. Alexander Litvinenko’s widow Marina will give a press conference in Cannes this Saturday, the day of the film’s Special Screening.

Rebellion was not completed until after the Official Selection was announced on April 19. The Festival’s Artistic Delegate, Thierry Frémaux, has just judged the finished
version, and decided to make it part of the selection. The documentary contains testimony from several witnesses about the itinerary and death of Litvinenko, the former KGB agent who had become
a critic of the regime, and who was poisoned with radioactive polonium in London. He died of radiation poisoning on November 23, 2006. “It’s a very factual documentary and a memorial film,
which looks at the Litvinenko case from the standpoint of who Litvinenko was, and who, in Russia, is still trying to keep a free press alive,” commented Thierry Frémaux.

Photo copyright AFP