A schoolteacher in rural Russia documents the state-enforced militarization of his students’ educational program following the 2022 invasion of Ukraine in Mr. Nobody Against Putin, which premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival and opens in Prague cinemas this weekend. This eye-opening, heartbreaking tale of how young minds are co-opted by state propaganda features haunting imagery and unflinching honesty, and represents an urgent and invaluable document of life inside contemporary Russia.
In early 2022, Pavel “Pasha” Talankin is a schoolteacher at Karabash Primary School #1. The town of about 13,000 has been called one of the most polluted places on Earth, and early scenes in Mr. Nobody Against Putin showcase its copper smelting plant that pours out untold amounts of toxic chemicals into the air, which result in elevated rates of cancer and respiratory diseases and an unusually high mortality rate.
But Pavel takes pride in his hometown, and playful early scenes in Mr. Nobody Against Putin evoke memories of Michael Moore and his affection for Flint, Michigan in Roger & Me: this may be urban hell, but it’s our urban hell. But in February 2022, Russian tanks roll into Ukraine, and everything changes. Not only does this war, thousands of kilometers away, indirectly touch the inhabitants of Karabash—the government begins to directly alter their everyday lives to accommodate for it.
Pavel works as a videographer and event coordinator at his school, which gives him privileged access into the lives of those around him, and the bulk of Mr. Nobody Against Putin follows teachers and students as they adapt to a new school curriculum. Newly, teachers are forced to recite pro-war propaganda word-for-word from government mandates. Students follow in suit.
But it goes much deeper. Students under ten are instructed in military marching drills as part of their physical education. They are taught how to use assault rifles and other weaponry by members of the Wagner Group. The school hosts grenade-throwing competitions, and those who can toss explosives the farthest are rewarded. Parents, perhaps somewhat blind to what’s going on, begin to wonder why their children’s grades are dropping. But the teachers understand that they are no longer educating student in arts and sciences, but rather indoctrinating them into the regime and training them to become good little soldiers.
Of course, there are also the direct impacts. One of Pavel’s former students, briefly glimpsed having fun in early scenes, is dead two years later. So is the brother of one of his current students. We get to know one former student in particular, who is sent to the front lines during the course of the movie, and not exactly happy to be leaving; months later, his younger brother informs Pavel that he’s been promoted to Captain.
Pavel feels free enough to speak his mind during the course of the film, and even plays Lady Gaga’s rendition of The Star-Spangled Banner over the school’s public address at one point, but nobody else wants to deviate from state propaganda in front of his camera. Even the young girl whose brother was killed in action holds back her feelings, as if mourning his loss would contradict government-mandated support for the war.
That casts Pavel as something of an outsider, and he begins to reject his role in documenting state propaganda. With a little outside help, and conviction in the value of footage he has assembled, he takes great personal risk to smuggle it outside of the country. Director David Borenstein, with the help of producers in Denmark and Czechia, will fashion his footage into Mr. Nobody Against Putin.
The result is an invaluable document about what is going on inside Russia’s education system that should be seen by anyone interested in what’s in store next. This isn’t a movie about how young, innocent Russians are being sent off to die on the front lines, but about how the system is indoctrinating a generation of people into being prepared for a life of unending war.
A lot of what Mr. Nobody Against Putin portrays feels like it should have been secretly captured by amateur footage. But Pavel is a trained filmmaker with access to proper equipment, and he knows where to point his camera and what questions to ask his subjects. Recruited by the state to document their propaganda, he turns his camera back on them, and there’s a stark precision to what he captures here that is often heartbreaking.
Mr. Nobody Against Putin is one of four Czech co-productions that have been submitted to compete for Best International Film at next year’s Academy Awards—joining I’m Not Everything I Want to Be, Father, and Franz—and it’s also eligible in the Best Documentary category. Given the political urgency of the movie, and the eye-opening transparency of the footage Talankin has been able to assemble, it might have the best shot at securing a nomination.
