Mr Nobody Against Putin: Trailer, certificate and where to watch
Oscar and-BAFTA-winning documentary about a teacher who takes a stand
Year: 2025
The Oscar and-BAFTA-winning documentary Mr Nobody Against Putin follows Pavel 'Pasha' Talankin, who works as a teacher in Karabash, a poor Russian town that is so polluted from the copper smelting plant that the average life expectancy is 38 - and that's not even the story.
Talankin is the school's videographer and over the progress of two years he films his school's grim transformation post the invasion of Ukraine as a 'a new federal education policy' is introduced. Soon, children are reciting patriotic speeches and are subjected to drills, while teachers are being forced to teach their pupils: 'State policy in Ukraine is decided by radicals and neo Nazis...' and also, interestingly, 'England is a tiny island that killed their own people in World War II.'
The military come in to show them how to throw mines. By the end, some of Talankin's former pupils, who are now young men, have been conscripted and don't return. There is an agonising funeral scene.
Talankin is extraordinary. He won't take down the democracy flag in his classroom. He plays Lady Gaga singing The Star Spangled Banner through the school's loudspeakers. He loves his students and when he's told he has too much of an open-door policy he takes the door off its hinges.
Where is he now? Safe in Prague, hopefully. His mother also works in the school in Karabash. She's the librarian. Chances are, he'll never see her again. Such a brave man, and also such a beautiful, beautiful soul. (90 minutes)
