Words of War
The great Maxine Peake rescues James Strong’s Anglo-American drama about a brave real-life Russian reporter during the Second Chechen War.
Jason Isaacs and Maxine Peake
Image courtesy of Signature Entertainment.
Anna Politkovskaya died in 2006 but is now the subject of this film and is played by Maxine Peake giving what is surely one of her best performances ever. Her acting is the best reason for seeing Words of War but, despite it dealing with events that occurred at the start of the century, it is a film that resonates in ways that make it feel an apt work for our own times. That is because Anna was a journalist who, not least during the Second Chechen War that broke out in 1999, dared to challenge President Putin. She told the truth regarding his actions and his misleading justification for using Russian Chechen paramilitary forces to oppose the separatists keen to make Chechnya a breakaway republic. All this may seem like old history now but, if one compares these events with what is happening in Ukraine today or considers the lack of freedom to speak out that has stifled the Russian press and media, it becomes all too apparent that stories of people prepared to confront Putin through their words have lost nothing of their importance.
To draw in viewers from the outset even if they have never heard of Anna Politkovskaya, the film begins dramatically with a moment when her life was endangered: in 2004 Anna was poisoned while on a plane but survived the attempt to eliminate her. In terms of the wider relevance of her story, this incident reminds one of what would happen to Alexei Navalny in 2020, but it is also an effective lead in to a narrative which will now go back five years to show how Anna, who had been born in 1958, became concerned about what was happening in Chechnya. This led to her expressing her determination to visit the war zone and to talk to the inhabitants. Her motivation was all the stronger because her journalism had resulted in her working for Dmitry Muratov the editor-in-chief of the only independent newspaper then existing in Russia, this being Novaya Gazeta which had been established with help from Mikhail Gorbachev in 1993. It meant that in due course her articles on Chechnya appeared regularly in its pages and her reputation as a truth-teller caused Chechens to speak to her honestly in a way that no other journalist could count on.
Words of War traces Anna’s story between 1999 and 2006 and we meet her husband Sasha whom she had married in 1978 and their children, Ilya and Vera, as well as Muratov himself and some of her colleagues. Her visits to Chechnya bring home the terrible state of things there and the film also deals with the time in 2002 when Anna was approached by the authorities to become involved in negotiations with Chechens who had taken a theatre audience hostage in Moscow. Although this film is closely based on a true story it was made without authorisation from members of Anna's family and is frank in acknowledging that one character, a Russian official named Egorov who makes contact with Anna, is fictional (it’s an invention that makes the storytelling neater without distorting any elements central to what is being said here).
From this description it will be evident that Anna Politkovskaya is a figure well suited to being the chief focus of a drama based on her life and that for this to happen close on twenty years after her death does not lessen its impact. But, if it were to carry full conviction, such a piece would need a cast who were Russian or at least persuasively so. Unfortunately, Words of War is one of those works set in a foreign country in which most of the players are British and everybody speaks English thus making it impossible to create a sense of true authenticity. Nor is this problem in any way helped by Eric Poppen’s screenplay which is at times rather banal and even on occasion readily embraces cliché (no sooner does Anna declare that her husband is supportive of her going into a war zone despite all the dangers than we cut instantly to a scene of Sasha expressing his anxious disapproval).
For most viewers the fact that Words of War was shot in Latvia standing in for the real locations will be acceptable enough, but the language issue remains a major concern and it is not helped when a brief montage of Chechen citizens expressing their situation does indeed show them speaking in their own language with subtitles after which English takes over once again. But, if the direction by James Strong (well known for his TV work and especially for Mr. Bates vs The Post Office) is serviceable rather than anything special, the cast assembled is a quality one. Although their roles are not sufficiently elaborated for them to make a huge difference, the main actors supporting Peake (Jason Isaacs as Sasha, Ciarán Hinds as Muratov and Ian Hart as Egorov) all play with authority and are able to make more of an impression than Harry Lawtey and Naomi Battrick in the more limited roles of Ilya and Vera. However, the key role of Anna herself is handled with such conviction by Maxine Peake that just for once I sensed that I was watching somebody whose skills could override the barrier represented here by the fact that to seem real the character of Anna ought to be enacted by a Russian actress. This role is, of course, far more fully in focus than the other figures, but it is Peake’s in-depth identification with the role that explains her triumph. Publicity for Words of War has played on the fact that one of its many executive producers was Sean Penn, but it is Maxine Peake’s achievement here which truly stands out and which against the odds gives the piece a weight that it would not have had without her.
MANSEL STIMPSON
Cast: Maxine Peake, Jason Isaacs, Ciarán Hinds, Ellie Bamber, Harry Lawtey, Fady El-Sayed, Ian Hart, Naomi Battrick, Lujza Richter, Ben Miles, Agni Scott, Billy Hinchliff, Alex Newman, Oliver Maltman.
Dir James Strong, Pro Paul Brennan, Kia Jam, Mark Maxey and Miriam Segal, Screenplay Eric Poppen, Ph Mike Eley, Pro Des Crispian Sallis, Ed David Charap, Music Snorri Hallgrímsson, Costumes Nigel Egerton.
Good Films Collective/Rolling Pictures/Kjam Media/ Concourse/Richmond Pictures-Signature Entertainment.
117 mins. UK/USA. 2025. US Rel: 2 May 2025. UK Rel: 27 June 2025. Cert. 15.
