Frontline Acquires ‘Antidote,' Documentary Thriller On Investigative Journalist Caught In Kremlin Crosshairs
EXCLUSIVE: A new documentary about Christo Grozev, an investigative journalist put on a Kremlin 'kill list' for exposing Russian assassination plots, will make its broadcast debut on Frontline.
The long-running series produced by GBH in Boston has struck a deal to air the film directed by James Jones the night of May 6 on PBS stations, as well as Frontline's YouTube channel and the PBS Documentaries Prime Video Channel. The documentary will become available that same evening (at 7 p.m. Eastern/6 p.m. Central) at pbs.org/frontline and through the PBS App. Prior to the Frontline, Antidote will have a limited theatrical release in Los Angeles.
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Grozev rose to international prominence by uncovering Kremlin schemes to poison Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny and Russian British activist and journalist Vladimir Kara-Murza. While that work earned him the sobriquet 'rock star investigative journalist,' it didn't endear Grozev to Russia authorities who slapped him on a 'most wanted' list in 2023 and allegedly put a network of international spies on his tail with instructions to kidnap or kill him.
Jones (On the President's Orders, Chernobyl: The Lost Tapes) focuses his documentary both on Grozev — as he tries to keep a step or two ahead of would-be assassins – as well as on Evgenia Kara-Murza, the wife of Vladimir Kara-Murza, as she tries to free her husband from a Russian prison.
'The feature documentary lays bare the grave consequences that come with speaking out against the Putin regime,' notes a release, 'revealing the threats Grozev, Kara-Murza and their families face as they seek to expose the actions of the Kremlin to the world.'
'I am so thrilled to be working with Frontline again, more than a decade since we made our first film together,' Jones said in a statement. 'Frontline has always been the gold standard of documentaries and they've become pioneers of cinematic investigative journalism. At this critical moment in history we could not have better partners to work with to bring this film to American viewers.'
Frontline earned an Oscar for its 2023 documentary 20 Days in Mariupol, directed by Mstyslav Chernov and over the years has won 108 Emmy Awards and 34 Peabody Awards, among numerous other distinctions.
'We are proud to share this important feature documentary with American audiences on Frontline,' said Raney Aronson-Rath, Frontline's editor-in-chief and executive producer, 'and to continue offering in-depth journalism on Putin's Russia on air, online and in theaters.'
Antidote is a Passion Pictures and Bellingcat Production for Frontline in association with Impact Partners, Channel 4 and M4 Studio. It held its world premiere in March at CPH:DOX in Copenhagen; an earlier iteration of the documentary debuted at Tribeca Festival in New York, where it won an award for editing.
Antidote is directed and produced by James Jones. The production executive is Tom Cross; the co-producer is Vivien Jones. Dan Edge is senior producer. The executive producers are Jim and Susan Swartz, Nina and David Fialkow, Maiken Baird, Jens Von Bahr, John Driscoll, Molly and Kevin Efrusy, Jenny Raskin, Geralyn White Dreyfous, Joanna Potts, Nevine Mabro, Louisa Compton, Hamish Fergusson, Andrew Ruhemann, Fiona Stourton, and David Moulton. Co-executive producers are Lauren Haber and Kelsey Koenig.
Deadline spoke with Jones and Grozev at CPH:DOX in March. The Bulgarian-born journalist used a term associated with fundamentalist Iran to describe the Kremlin move to hunt him down.
'I called it a fatwa,' Grozev said. 'And I called it that on purpose because of that being the closest analogy at the time. Because the way it was announced by Russia, it had no other pragmatic purpose than to make others that would like to deliver a favor to Putin, to potentially go after me.'
By the time the Kremlin 'fatwa' was published, Grozev had left his home in Vienna for the relative safety of New York. Now with Donald Trump in the White House, and in sync with Putin's Russia, America may no longer offer much security.
'Now there's no question the U.S. is not safe anymore,' he told Deadline. 'Everything, all assessment of risk, is relative.'
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