Maxine Peake is adding “crusading journalist” to the list of the 90+ characters she has brought to life. The BAFTA and BIFA-nominated actress has signed on to portray Anna Politkovskaya, the real-life Russian reporter, human rights activist, and outspoken critic of Vladimir Putin. Peake will star in “the timely Cannes market package” “Mother Russia,” Deadline confirms.
The film is the story of Politkovskaya, “who went from being a local print journalist to braving the Chechen killing fields and exposing Russian state corruption under Vladimir Putin,” the source details. “She refused to give up reporting on the war in Chechnya despite numerous acts of intimidation and violence, including being poisoned. She was ultimately murdered in the elevator of her block of flats and it remains unclear who paid for the contract killing.”
Also starring in “Mother Russia” are Ciaran Hinds (“Belfast”), as newspaper editor Dmitry Muratov, and Jason Isaacs (“Mass”) as Politkovskaya’s husband, Sacha.
Production will kick off in late summer in the U.K. and Latvia. Luminosity Entertainment is introducing international sales at the Cannes market.
“Three years ago, when we started developing this screenplay about this quite extraordinary woman, never did we imagine how prescient it would become,” producer Miriam Segal told Deadline, seemingly in reference to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. “To have assembled this incredible cast and team, to be filming in both London and Latvia (with Forma Pro Films and its principals Yulia Zayceva and Dean Altit), working with partners like Daniel Diamond and Luminosity, is a phenomenal opportunity.”
Diamond described Politkovskaya’s story as “one of unbelievable determination and courage in the face of unimaginable circumstances.”
“Funny Cow,” “The Bisexual,” and “The Theory of Everything” are among Peake’s credits. She received a BIFA nomination for the former and BAFTA TV nods for “The Village” and “Hancock & Joan.” Peake has also written and directed several shorts and the TV doc “The Last Testament of Lillian Bilocca.”
