Karabash, a small Russian town in the Ural Mountains (traditionally the border between Europe and Asia) is known primarily for its copper smelting plant and the resulting pollution (UNESCO called it “the most toxic place on earth”). Despite the town sometimes being a butt of jokes, however, Pavel Talankin says it’s not a bad place to live. He grew up there and now works as an event coordinator and videographer for the local primary school where his mother is the school librarian. He seems to have a good rapport with everyone and turned his office into a sort of clubroom where the students can hang out and play guitars and just be themselves, the sort of space he wished existed when he was a student who felt he didn’t fit in.
Things change in 2022, when Russia invades Ukraine and teachers are required to deliver state-written “patriotic” lessons and engage in displays of support for the Russian army. To prove they are complying, the school must submit video evidence of them carrying out these activities and soon recording and uploading these videos to a government database becomes Talankin’s entire job. He submits his resignation to avoid becoming part of the propaganda machine but withdraws it after contacting documentary filmmaker David Borenstein and realizing that the videos he’s been forced to make could be used as evidence against the Putin regime.
Mr Nobody Against Putin is a remarkably cheerful film given the grim subject matter. Talankin’s humanity and gentle sense of humor comes through in his narration and shot choices, a smart move since when things are as ridiculous as they become in Karabash, there’s no need to raise your voice: putting simple reality on record is enough. It’s not all fun and games, however: local boys are drafted to serve in the military and some of the teachers embrace their role as spokespeople for violent, xenophobic government propaganda.
In times like these, I’m inclined to think that Uncle Ben in Spider-Man got it wrong: great power is often accompanied not by great responsibility, but great stupidity. I realize the great responsibility thing was an admonition that those with power can choose to ignore, but I’m not sure that they realize that ignoring the dark side of unchecked power can lead to self-destructive actions (with a lot of other people and things being destroyed as well, of course). The story of this documentary is a case in point—yes, a dictator can force teachers to become tools of a propaganda machine, and to provide evidence that they are doing what they are told, but you can never be sure that you have the only copy of that evidence.
Media coverage of war is usually focused what’s happening on the battlefield—armies advancing and retreating, territory conquered and retaken, body counts—with much less attention paid to how war affects the civilian population of the aggressor nation. In this case, you could say that tyranny begins at home, with ordinary Russians being bullied to say and do things they don’t believe and children being forced to memorize propaganda when their energies should be directed toward acquiring real knowledge, discovering who they are, and learning to think for themselves.
Mr Nobody Against Putin won the Oscar for Best Documentary, the BAFTA for Best Documentary, and a Special Jury Award at Sundance, among other things. That’s the kind of publicity that can really help in gaining a wide audience which is good in terms of informing people about what’s really going on in Russia. But it also magnifies an ethical issue inherent in the way this documentary was made: it includes recognizable images of people, including children, who could be subject to retaliation by the Putin government.
The students and staff had to appear in the videos for internal reporting purposes, but they didn’t know Talankin was planning to use them in a documentary that would be distributed in other countries, so they couldn’t have given their consent to use their images for that purpose. Talankin left the country before the film was released, but not everyone has that choice, nor should they have to make it based on his something they never consented to. I don’t have a solution to this dilemma, because I’m really glad this film exists and blurring the images and disguising the voices of everyone other than Talankin, or using voice actors and animation, would have made it less effective since the ordinariness of the school setting is part of what it so powerful. However, to avoid creating more risk, I chose an image of just the filmmaker (who appears in the film, although not in an attention-hogging Michael Moore sort of way) to appear with this review, rather than a shot including any students or teachers. | Sarah Boslaugh
Mr Nobody Against Putin is distributed on DVD by Kino Lorber and is available for multiple streaming sources including the Kino Film Collection. Extras on the disc include an introduction by co-director and cinematographer Pavel Talankin and the film’s trailer.
