The family of Anna Politkovskaya, Novaya Gazeta journalist and human rights activist, has issued a statement to criticise Anna, the upcoming biographical movie centred around her life, for misrepresenting facts. The statement signed by her children Ilya and Vera as well as ex-husband Alexander Politkovsky was obtained by Novaya Gazeta Europe.
Her family is concerned by the fact that the provisional screenplay which was revealed earlier is contrived and contains significant distortions relating both to Anna and her family, the statement reads.
The film produced by Good Films Collective company is currently in the post-production stage under the name Anna. Despite the claims that the film is based on Politkovskaya’s “real story”, it was not approved by her family. Moreover, neither her children nor her ex-husband were involved in the production or granted permission to use their names or characters.
According to IMDb, Anna is directed by James Strong and will be released in 2024. British actress Maxine Peake plays the main role in the biopic.
Anna Politkovskaya was assassinated on 7 October 2006. As a Novaya Gazeta journalist, she investigated political and military corruption in Russia and gained domestic and international renown for her Chechnya War reports.
She wrote many books and articles where she was vocally critical of the Russian regime and won many international awards for her works. Politkovskaya received multiple death threats over her career. It is widely believed that the Russian government was involved in the assassination.
The statute of limitations for bringing the client and other persons involved in the Politkovskaya murder case to justice expired on 7 October 2021. Investigative agencies still have not named those who ordered the assassination.
The European Court of Human Rights ruled that the Anna Politkovskaya murder investigation was ineffective: the investigation team did not make sufficient effort to find out the truth about the case.