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‘Words of War’ Review: A Crusader for Truth in Putin’s Russia Is Memorialized in a Less-Than-Bold Biopic


'Words of War,' starring Maxine Peake as Anna Politkovskaya, provides a respectful but inauthentic tribute to the Russian journalist.

There remain few stronger recent-history illustrations of that threat than the case of Anna Politkovskaya, a prominent Russian journalist noted for her relentless exposure of government corruption and harmful policies, particularly around the Second Chechen War. Rewinding five years prior, we find her already a crusading reporter and columnist for the independent (i.e. non-state-controlled) newspaper Novaya Gazeta, which Mikhail Gorbachev helped found after the breakup of the Soviet Union. Still, Anna’s notoriety is limited until editor-in-chief Dmitry Muratov (Ciaran Hinds) agrees to let her do on-the-ground reporting in Chechen, where the outbreak of new conflict with Russian forces has so far been viewed only through the lens of government propaganda.

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