The Cannes Film Festival’s official programme will include the surprise premiere of a Russian documentary about the poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko, organisers announced yesterday.

Rebellion: The Litvinenko Case, is a two-hour documentary made by Andrei Nekrasov, a director and friend of Litvinenko.

The film-maker spent two years working on the project and shot footage right up until Litvinenko’s last days in hospital after he had been poisoned with polonium210, the radioactive substance.

Mr Nekrasov conducted extensive interviews with the main figures, including Andrei Lugovoy, the man accused of Litvinenko’s murder.

Mr Nekrasov said that films from the Cannes festival were usually picked for the Moscow Film Festival. This one, he added, had no chance of being shown in Russia.

“But I will try to show it in Russia, out of principle,” he said. “It’s a high-quality production, so they can’t discount it. I’m sure they won’t take it.”Mr Nekrasov, who is based in London and St Petersburg, met Litvinenko in 2002 when he was working on a documentary on the Moscow bombings of 1999, and became fascinated by his character.

“He was a military man, a typical Russian and sporty,” he said. “He went a long way in his personal transformation, a personal quest for truth, which was something extraordinary.

“There was something religious about him, a complete obsession with justice. He was slightly naive. But I thought he would be an extraordinary character for a film.”

The documentary is both a portrait of the man and an investigation into the context of the whole affair.

Mr Nekrasov said: “We will never get to the bottom of this crime unless we understand the motive. Even if we know for sure it’s Lugavoy this doesn’t give us a clue as to why. And why so sadistic a killing?”

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