Factual

Abacus Media Rights (AMR), an Amcomri Entertainment Company, has acquired documentary feature The Price of Truth produced by Oxford Films and directed by BAFTA Award winner Patrick Forbes for distribution.

The 1 x 85’ documentary is produced by Yelena Zagrevskaya and Vanessa Tuson and was part of the official selection of films at Sheffield Doc Fest, where it was very well received.

The Price of Truth has been produced for Channel 4 and SWR - Arte, Abacus is representing sales for the rest of world and has already sold it to the PBS investigative documentary series FRONTLINE in the US, NRK in Norway and to HBO for Baltics and CEE (Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Romania, Czechia, Hungary and ex-Yugoslavia countries).

How far would you go to defend the idea of an open press? In December 2021 Dmitry Muratov, editor-in-chief of Russia’s only independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Since he founded Novaya, six of his journalists have been murdered after their reports displeased the state. Most famously, reporter, Anna Politkovskaya, was gunned down in the lift of her Moscow apartment.

However, another war dominates this film. As Russia's tanks poured into Ukraine, Muratov was - ironically - in Riga, Latvia on the jury of a documentary festival. Defying all those who advised him not to return, Muratov insisted he had to go back to Moscow to look after his paper, and its staff.

In May he announced that he was going to auction his Nobel medal and working with UNICEF give the proceeds to Russian, African and crucially Ukrainian refugees. Days later while on a train, a masked attacker bursts in and pours red paint laced with acetone over him. Dmitry’s eyesight is permanently damaged. Undaunted, he goes ahead with the auction and on June 21st his medal sells for $103m. To this day he refuses to leave Moscow, whatever the pressure on him and his team saying, ‘Putin stands for death. I stand for life.’

Jonathan Ford, Managing Director, AMR comments, “We are very pleased to have the opportunity to distribute such an impactful documentary internationally and to reveal the full details of this shocking event to the world. This film tells the story of a man who risks everything to preserve freedom of speech in Russia. It is a tale of bravery, defiance, and a simple refusal to give in – whatever the cost.”