The Spy Next Door
Dan Vernon / United Kingdom / 2026 / World Premiere / 87 min
The nerve agent attack on a Russian spy in an idyllic English provincial town sets off all the alarm bells in Downing Street. What do the country's leaders talk about when the nation is under attack?
Salisbury in southern England is mostly an idyllic place. A medium-sized provincial town with a beautiful 13th-century cathedral in the center. But the idyll came to an abrupt end in 2018 when an elderly man and his adult daughter collapsed in the street, victims of an attack with a deadly nerve agent. The man turned out to be Sergei Skripal, a spy and Russian defector. The poison was the Soviet signature killer Novichok. In other words, a poison attack on English soil, where all clues pointed to Russia. There was a red alert in Downing Street.
It’s the recipe for a John Le Carré novel and a national and diplomatic crisis at a time when the Russians were still playing poker face. The only problem was that there was no evidence. And this is where investigative journalist Christo Grozev (‘Antidote’, CPH:DOX 2025) comes into the picture, piecing together the clues in his own uniquely original way. Leading figures such as Theresa May and the directors of the MI6 intelligence service let us in on what goes on in the corridors of power when the nation is under attack – and how Russia operates in a changed world.