Mr Nobody Against Putin

Set in a small town in the Ural Mountains, Mr Nobody Against Putin tells the story of Pavel Talankin, a school videographer whose deep engagement with his students is interrupted when Russia invades Ukraine, and a soviet-style propaganda programme is suddenly instituted at the school. Now, instead of documenting school life, the well-loved Pavel is required to record the new activities as proof that the school is adhering to the regulations. His camera, once the mechanism through which he connected with people, becomes an object of suspicion and the previously rich school life is drained of colour. But when Pavel comes across an Instagram post looking for people prepared to talk about the impact of the war on education, he embraces the opportunity to use his camera as a weapon against Putin’s information war. The resulting film is disturbing and charming in equal measure, the purity of its central character’s intentions standing in stark contrast to the brutality and inhumanity of the Russian state.