Might as well get the most obvious question out of the way up front: "Death of a President," a faux documentary about the murder of George W. Bush, is neither left-wing wish fulfillment nor an encouragement to kill politicians you disagree with.

Gabriel Range's provocative and technically seamless what-if examines how that disastrous event might be used by the same folks who brought us the Iraq war and the Patriot Act to instill fear in the populace and ram through ever more repressive laws in the name of security.

"Death" purports to be a documentary looking into the murder of Bush on Oct. 19, 2007, as he was leaving a speaking engagement at a Chicago hotel. He was gunned down by a sniper nestled in an office building across the street.

Apparently the documentary was made many months after that traumatic night and attempts to take in all aspects of the tragedy, from the thousands of angry and sometimes violent protesters who converged on Chicago's Loop to give the president a fiery reception to the cops, FBI and Secret Service people who were involved.

We learn early on that a man from Syria is on death row for the crime, but the filmmakers build a case that the government arrested, tried and convicted the wrong guy — mostly because having the assassin be from the Muslim world feeds into the conspiracy/security fears of American voters. It's a chance for the new Cheney administration to consolidate its political power, presumably before the 2008 presidential election.

The main problem with "Death of a President" is that it's preaching to the choir: The only people likely to go see it are those who already think we've been sold a bill of goods on Iraq and security and all the rest.

But as a technical achievement the film is a revelation, seamlessly melding real news footage (sometimes tweaked with subtle but effective special effects) with talking-head interviews.