‘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 true world – however what if that world is on a struggle footing? On this eye-opening documentary, David Borenstein, working with Russian teacher-turned-documentarian and co-director Pavel ‘Pasha’ Talankin, affords a lesson about Russian schoolrooms. They reveal the insidious propaganda machine that has been busily at work inside them because the nation’s invasion of Ukraine, which goals to arm the youngsters for battle.

 A reminder of youngsters because the harmless victims of struggle

Mr. No one In opposition to Putin offers 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 supplies its narrative voice-over, additionally comes at it from a private and sometimes playful angle. The approachable tone and likeable information make it accessible for many who will not be properly versed within the topic, and may see it entice curiosity past the competition 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 Major Faculty 1, which additionally educates college students via their teenagers. That put Talankin within the distinctive place of having the ability to see propaganda creeping into the classroom whereas additionally having a legit 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 due to its copper smelting plant, with individuals flocking to ’essentially the most poisonous place on earth’. For Talankin, nonetheless, who was a pupil on the faculty the place he now teaches, it’s residence and a spot he loves. He’s enthusiastic on the whole, making him successful with the youngsters and an interesting companion for us.

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

Unwilling to turn out to be “a pawn of the regime”, Talankin impulsively responds to a social media submit 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 turn out to be 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 assist 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 included into day by day routines are simply the beginning of a slippery slope to militarisation that may 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, nonetheless, makes the potential menace to him really feel acute, comparable 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 residence the loss being confronted by lots 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 scenario is much worse for Ukranians, Talankin’s footage comes as a reminder of youngsters because the harmless victims of struggle.

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