Mr. Nobody Against Putin
Pavel Talankin was lonely as a child, his mother describing him as 'different.' As an adult, he adores his home town of Karabash, even though UNESCO classified the copper mining town as the world's most polluted with a life expectancy of 38. He also loves his job as the event coordinator and videographer at Karabash Primary School, his office a gathering place for the kids he teaches. But soon after Putin announced his 'Special Military Operation' in Ukraine on 2/24/22, everything about Pavel's life changed. Teachers were required to teach from scripted state propaganda promoting the war, he was ordered to film it all and community trust began to wither. Even worse, one by one, the kids he'd seen grown up began being sent to fight a war incurring 1K casualties a day. Pavel, known as Pasha, bravely becomes "Mr. Nobody Against Putin."
Laura's Review: A-
Working secretly with Talankin, who codirects the film by choosing what to document, writer/director David Borenstein exposes how Putin,
in his quest to restore the Soviet Union and Imperial Russia, is brainwashing a generation of children to become cannon fodder. As our guide and narrator, Pasha presents as an Everyman, a bit of an outsider who found his niche, then felt compelled to abandon both it and his safety as a whistleblower against Putin's regime. The juxtaposition of Pasha's early videos of happy schoolchildren adorned with his 'titles' as handwritten paper 'bubbles' with his later footage of ten year-old boys marching in exaggerated military style and aiming rifles at his camera is shocking.
The film opens with what appears to be clandestine activity, Pavel walking towards a tree at night and beginning to dig while a female voice assures him he should remain calm while taking his footage across the border as his ticket indicates he will be returning in seven days. We are then transported back two and a half years as Pasha describes his life in Karabash where a mountain overlooking the industrial town has turned black. He is the smiling school A/V guy known by most in this city of 10K. His mom's the school librarian. We see the joyous holiday celebrations he arranges for the kids at Easter and Christmas. Kids hang out in his office. He lives with his dachshund, Nebraska, in a Soviet-era bloc apartment.
Then Putin invades Ukraine and, apparently when it becomes clear this isn't going to go the way he planned, a new Federal Patriotic Education Policy is issued, one which demands the morning begin with the National Anthem and Russian flag and lessons teaching about the 'De-Nazification' of Ukraine, all of it to be recorded on video. Pasha is particularly disturbed by history classes taught by true believer Viktor Abakumov, who tells his students that Europeans are suffering more than Russia from sanctions, that Great Britain killed its own people during WWII, that there are pro-Russian demonstrations occurring in the U.S. and that it is important to eliminate dissenting views.
One night, Pasha sees an ad from a Russian Web Content Company asking for people whose jobs have been affected by the war to respond, something which he does at length, not really expecting to hear anything back. Fearing that he has become a propagandist for having to record all of this, Pasha, who admires the bravery of those protesting the war in cities larger than his own, decides to resign, his letter stating he will leave at the end of the school year. The kids who used to hang out in Pasha's office begin to drift away, perhaps afraid to be seen in a space where a Russian Democracy protest flag hangs, but Pasha is there for Vanya's going away party when the teenager is conscripted, videotaping the friends gathered to hoist a beer, shave his head and send him off. And then Pasha hears from David Borenstein, a Denmark based documentarian referred to him by that Russian Web company, interested in collaborating on a work which will reveal just what's going on in Russia.
Things only proceed to get worse, Putin creating a 'children's movement' much like WWII's Hitler Youth. Wagner mercenaries are brought in to 'teach' classes, essentially providing arms training to schoolkids. In what must be a sickening moment for our guide, the town's Favorite Teacher award goes to Abakumov, who is rewarded with a brand new apartment. Pasha records audio at the burial of one of his former classmates, the man's mother's heartbreaking wails haunting. And while the townspeople still appear outwardly pro-Putin, the teachers realize that grades are slipping due to the time taken up by all this enforced 'patriotism.'
Borenstein closes the loop, returning to his opening footage to give us new perspective. Pasha is digging up a tree for the next day's graduation ceremony, one in which he will give a speech that moves folks to tears. He leaves the country the next day. "Mr. Nobody Against Putin" is an essential document of what has been going in Russia. It is also a warning, not only for what is happening internally there but what could happen here in the U.S.
Kino Lorber released "Mr. Nobody Against Putin" in NY on 1/21/26. Click here for subsequent dates and theaters. It can also be streamed from the Kino Collection.
