‘Mr Nobody Against Putin’: Sundance Review

Dirs: David Borenstein, Pavel Talankin. Denmark/Czech Republic. 2025. 90mins

Many imagine that college ought to put together you for the actual world – however what if that world is on a battle footing? On this eye-opening documentary, David Borenstein, working with Russian teacher-turned-documentarian and co-director Pavel ‘Pasha’ Talankin, presents a lesson about Russian schoolrooms. They reveal the insidious propaganda machine that has been busily at work inside them for the reason that nation’s invasion of Ukraine, which goals to arm the kids for battle.

 A reminder of youngsters because the harmless victims of battle

Mr. No one In opposition to Putin provides a uncommon view from the opposite facet of the border to Ukrainian documentaries together with Mstyslav Chernov’s Oscar-winner 20 Days In Mariupol and Oksana Karpovych’s Intercepted. Though the subject material is sombre, Talankin, who filmed the documentary and gives its narrative voice-over, additionally comes at it from a private and infrequently playful angle. The approachable tone and likeable information make it accessible for individuals who should not nicely versed within the topic, and may see it appeal to curiosity past the pageant circuit after its world premiere in Sundance.

When Vladimir Putin’s invasion started in February 2022, Talankin was the occasion coordinator and videographer at Karabash Main Faculty 1, which additionally educates college students by their teenagers. That put Talankin within the distinctive place of with the ability to see propaganda creeping into the classroom whereas additionally having a reliable means to doc it. We meet him about two-and-a-half years later, as he’s set to attempt to depart the nation, earlier than the motion flashes again, including pressure to all that follows.  

YouTube clips introduce us to the city, within the south west of Russia. They point out that pre-war Karabash was a stop-off for ecological catastrophe vacationers because of its copper smelting plant, with individuals flocking to ’essentially the most poisonous place on earth’. For Talankin, nevertheless, who was a pupil on the faculty the place he now teaches, it’s dwelling and a spot he loves. He’s enthusiastic usually, making him a success with the youngsters and an interesting companion for us.

Issues change after the invasion, as dictats start to reach from Moscow insisting that the kids be filmed singing patriotic songs and different materials. Lecturers additionally obtain scripts full of pretend claims about Ukraine’s ‘neo-Nazis’ and the devastating impression of the battle on the remainder of Europe. Whereas among the employees welcome this, others, like Talankin, don’t – even flagging up the truth that data is unfaithful to the kids earlier than shelling out it.

Unwilling to develop into “a pawn of the regime”, Talankin impulsively responds to a social media publish asking for individuals whose job ’has been affected by the particular navy operation’ to get in contact for a possible present. Though Mr No one correctly doesn’t develop into distracted by going into element, that is how Talankin got here to be working with Borenstein – who beforehand made documentaries together with Can’t Really feel Nothing and Dream Empire. Borenstein went on to form the movie, and offered distant help as Talankin shot it. Snippets of video diaries, which Talankin additionally started to movie throughout this era, add a way of immediacy, all easily and briskly edited collectively by Nicolaj Monberg and Rebekka Lonqvist.

Within the faculty, Military-style drills being integrated into every day routines are simply the beginning of a slippery slope to militarisation that can later see grenade-throwing handled as a sporting occasion like discus. In the meantime, the figurative mercenary angle of some academics is changed by precise gun-toting Wagner Group mercenaries. 

Talankin insists that he isn’t courageous like those that get arrested for protesting, though his movie is testimony to his long-term braveness. His spontaneity, nevertheless, makes the potential menace to him really feel acute, equivalent to when he replaces the Z-shaped tape on the varsity home windows – a Russian pro-war motif – with extra conventional Xs. His connection to the youngsters additionally brings dwelling the loss being confronted by a lot of his present and former college students, as mobilisation calls both them or their siblings to the frontline. Whereas not searching for to color all Russians as ‘victims’ and explicitly acknowledging the state of affairs is much worse for Ukranians, Talankin’s footage comes as a reminder of youngsters because the harmless victims of battle.

The sobering sensation is that that is solely the beginning and that whereas older children, who bear in mind a pre-invasion world, could also be sceptical, youthful ones shall be groomed to know nothing totally different. One of many YouTube clips signifies the common life expectancy within the heavily-polluted Karabash is 38 years; chillingly, with Putin now sending so many children to battle, that determine appears solely prone to decline.