Documentary about poisoned ex-spy set for Cannes debut

The film lineup at Cannes is getting a last-minute addition this week, with a documentary about the killing offormer Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko set to premiere on Saturday.

Cannes officials confirmed on Wednesday that Rebellion: The Litvinenko Casehas been added to the lineupand hosted a press conference featuring one of the film's directors, Andrei Nekrasov, a friend of the former KGB agent and Kremlin critic.

Litvinenkodied in London last November after being poisoned with radioactive polonium-210. The film tracks the final four years of the exiled Litvinenko's life, including his death in a London hospital.

Nekrasov told reporters he is leaving it to the authorities to track down who was responsible for his friend's death.

"What is important is to understand the motives and the context," of the situation, he said.

"I wanted to make a documentary which goes beyond information, and which looks deeper into people's motives without which we will never understand why he was killed."

Nekrasov met Litvinenko in the U.K. in 2002 and interviewed him for his previous film, Disbelief. Thoughthe filmmaker did not use the footage, he said he andLitvinenko became great friends in the process.

Highly critical of the Russian government,Rebellion also features interviews with other former KGB agents and attacks Russian President Vladimir Putin as well as government corruption.

Nekrasov, co-director Olga Konskaya and Litvinenko's widow, Marina, are among those expected to attend the Cannes screening of the nearly two-hour documentary on Saturday, Hollywood trade newspaper Variety reported on Tuesday.

"Making this film was a personal catharsis for me, a way of coping with the shock of losing a friend who died a terrible death in front of my eyes," Nekrasov said, according to Variety.

On Tuesday, British authorities announced plans to seek the extradition of Russian businessman Andrei Lugovoi to charge him with Litvinenko's murder. Lugovoi is also a former KGB agent.