Mr Nobody against Putin

Name: Mr Nobody against Putin
Director: David Borenstein
Genre: Documentary
Released: 2025
Duration: 1 h 30 min
Cast: Pavel Talankin

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Documentary

2025
David Borenstein
90 mins

Summary

A Russian teacher secretly documents his small town school's transformation into a war recruitment center during the Ukraine invasion, revealing the ethical dilemmas educators face amid propaganda and militarization.

IMDB

Review

A star rating of 4 out of 5.

Calum Baker

One man's mundane filmed reports become a diary of growing oppression and militarisation in this excellent documentary from Russia. Pavel "Pasha" Talankin is the events co-ordinator and videographer at the school in his small Ural hometown. Shortly after the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, the Kremlin implements a "patriotic education policy" that mandates state propaganda in schools, and the ensuing indoctrination lessons and tub-thumping displays must be filmed as proof of compliance. Over the next two and a half years, doggedly filming his life in and around the school, Talankin does his best to combat disinformation and encroaching nationalism, but the risk of being labelled a dissenter starts to grow too real to ignore. Credited as co-director and cinematographer, Talankin shares direct and personal insights laced with lively wit and humanity. American film-maker David Borenstein marshals Talankin's extensive footage, crafting a compact and compelling story with a range of interesting participants. Various youngsters provide emotional resonance - several of Pasha's male ex-students face imminent mobilisation -but it's a quietly fanatical pro-Putin history teacher who is arguably the most memorable character. A deserved winner of the Oscar and Bafta for best documentary, the film is both an invaluable document of an urgent situation and living proof of the deep-rooted link between large-scale politics and the seemingly provincial.

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7.4/10