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<\/p>\n\n\tNo one has exposed more Russian spies and assassination plots than investigative journalist Christo Grosev, first for Bellingcat and more recently for The Insider.<\/p>\n
\n\tHis reportage has earned him the admiration of those who value freedom of expression and the rule of law, but behind Kremlin walls the response to his work has been rather different. Officials there in effect declared him an enemy of the state after he exposed the scheme to eliminate Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny by dosing him with the deadly nerve agent Novichok. The Oscar-contending documentary Antidote reveals how Grosev became the prey of a Bulgarian spy team dispatched on Kremlin orders to abduct or assassinate him.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI was not really worried about myself. I was worried for my family,\u201d Christo told us in a conversation after a screening of Antidote as part of Deadline\u2019s virtual event series For the Love of Docs. \u201cThere were continued operations of this team, of this spy ring, that I wasn\u2019t aware of, including breaking into my apartment in Vienna while my son was in his room. And moments like this, when you retrospectively learn about them, they really make your blood curdle and be extremely angry.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\t\t\t\t\tDirector James Jones (left) and journalist Christo Grozev attend the \u2018Antidote\u2019 premiere at Tribeca Festival in New York City.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tArturo Holmes\/Getty Images for Tribeca Festival<\/p>\n
\n\tThe film \u2013 winner of awards at Tribeca, the Hamptons International Film Festival, and The Hague Movies that Matter Festival \u2013 is directed by James Jones (Chernobyl: The Lost Tapes). The project took twists and turns worthy of a John le Carr\u00e9 novel.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cWhen we started, [the idea] was kind of lifting the lid on Putin\u2019s poison program. We had this whistleblower who\u2019d developed Novichok, which was used to poison some of Putin\u2019s biggest enemies like Alexei Navalny,\u201d Jones explained. \u201cAnd then as time went by, it morphed into more of an ongoing story about the risks you take in standing up to Putin, what sacrifices you make in telling the truth about Putin\u2019s Russia. And then about halfway through, obviously Christo got the news from American law enforcement that there was this plot to follow him around the world, but also to kidnap or kill him.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tJones added, \u201cHis world was turned upside down and, credit to Christo, we carried on filming through that period, which was incredibly unsettling and discombobulating for him. And it felt surreal, to be honest. It felt like we were living through a spy film.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tJust like a good espionage movie, this tale came with an appropriately sinister baddie (in addition to Putin): Jan Marsalek, a fugitive Austrian businessman turned alleged embezzler, with ties to Russian intelligence. It was Marsalek who allegedly coordinated the maneuvers of a group of Bulgarian agents tasked with tracking Grosev and other targets. The six Bulgarians were nabbed in the UK and tried on espionage charges.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201c[Marsalek] was kind of the Bond villain who\u2019d escaped to Russia, lived this kind of fantastical life involving honeytraps, all these things. It seemed too rich to be believable,\u201d Jones commented. \u201cThen it all came to a head in the trial at the Old Bailey in London, and we saw 200,000 text messages between Jan Marsalek and this spy ring, and it was laid out in granular detail, hour by hour, minute by minute.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\t\t\t\t\tInvestigative journalist Christo Grozev in \u2018Antidote\u2019<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFrontline\/Passion Pictures\/Bellingcat<\/p>\n
\n\tThe shifting plot necessitated a rethinking of the name for the documentary. One early thought had been to dub it Poison, but other options were considered.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cOne of the working titles for the film was in fact Killing Christo,\u201d Grosev told us. \u201cI do think that Antidote carries at least that ambivalence between optimism and pessimism. And I\u2019m grateful that we changed it to this.\u201d<\/p>\n