Teachers and educators are vital to the ecosystem of society. They prepare children and teach them to become adults, educating them about history, social sciences, and languages, giving them everything they need before letting them go out in the world. So what happens when teachers are compromised by the government? What happens when a teacher must follow a strict curriculum laden with political propaganda? What happens when a country’s government decides to tell its people lies and indoctrinate the young in order to push them to enlist and join the army of one of the bloodiest European wars since World War II? In Mr. Nobody Against Putin, we follow Pasha Talankin as he witnesses his small town in the Ural Mountains change as the invasion of Ukraine changes the school he teaches at into something he doesn’t recognize.
What Is ‘Mr. Nobody Against Putin’ About?

Directed by Daniel Borenstein and Pasha Talankin, Mr. Nobody Against Putin puts a spotlight on a small town in Russia. Pasha grew up in Karabash, a small town in the Ural Mountains that’s been dubbed “the most toxic place on earth.” In Karabash, located in the industrial heart of Russia, the average life expectancy is 38. The copper smelting plant has seriously polluted the land, and generally, from an outsider’s point of view, it doesn’t seem like the most pleasant place to live. But, for Pasha, it’s home, and he loves it.
Working at the same school he attended as a child, where his mother is the librarian, Pasha is that teacher that we all remember from school. He’s cool, he creates a safe space for the kids, he’s on the younger side and is therefore privy to a lot more pop culture than his older colleagues. On the wall in his office, he’s got posters of Harry Potter characters alongside a Russian democracy protest flag, also known as an anti-war flag. He’s very much a nonconformist. And while he is Russian, that doesn’t mean that he agrees with the government, and he makes no bones about that.
But, as Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the climate in his school started to change. Fiercely anti-war, Pasha watches as the invasion not only begins to affect his co-workers (older people in the town believe the war is justified and even morally right) but also his students. Older brothers, students, and fathers get drafted into the war, and he watches as his students grapple with a growing reality that a loved one might never come home.
Pasha teaches self-expression and is beloved amongst his students for the freedom and encouragement he gives them, even attending parties with them outside of school. It’s clear he’s adored, but as the town becomes suffocated by more and more propaganda, Pasha’s lifelong outspoken thoughts against the war begin to turn him into an outsider. Mr. Nobody Against Putin is partially a documentary that focuses on how a small town deals with an oppressive government and also one man’s self-reflection as he wonders what he can do in the face of something as gargantuan and corrupting as the government’s influence.
‘Mr. Nobody Against Putin’ Shows the Lives of Day-to-Day Russians

Image via Sundance

In the beginning, Mr. Nobody Against Putin is somewhat lighthearted. Initially, it’s filmed almost like we’re in a mockumentary, something pulled right from The Office or Parks and Recreation. Although Karabash is initially introduced as a toxic place, it’s hard not to be charmed by Pasha’s hometown as we see it through his eyes. It’s clear throughout the documentary that while the rest of the world might have written this place off, Pasha can’t imagine leaving Karabash. He has no dreams of moving to the big city or leaving Russia; he is proud of his town, and he loves his country. But, as he points out, loving your country also means admitting when there is a problem. Although, at first, our day-to-day with Pasha feels almost pedestrian, it only magnifies the impact of propaganda when an ordinary town becomes militarized and brainwashed by state ideology.

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Pasha is a keen observer and through his eyes, we meet the significant figures around his small town, the people who play an important part in his story. Some of his students, like Masha, a young girl whose brother is fighting in the war, we see slowly wilt over the two years that Pasha documents the events. As the war progresses and truths are hidden from the public, these young people who have been taught to be open-minded and curious are being met with the ugliest side of the real world.
For others, like Pasha’s coworker and the school’s history teacher, Pavel Abdulmanov, we watch as they thrive under the new propaganda orders from the Kremlin. Introduced as a stick-in-the-mud, Pavel’s lectures are unenthusiastic, and the guy idolizes Stalin’s KGB chief (the father of the gulag if you’re curious), Stalin’s spy hunter, and his assassin as historical figures. It would all be funny if he wasn’t molding the minds of children. Pasha plays this off for laughs like he’s Nick Offerman’s Ron Swanson, but the fact is that this is a real teacher at a real school. Pavel’s fierce admiration of Stalin’s regime and Putin’s is in direct opposition to Pasha’s. While Pasha must escape Russia after Mr. Nobody Against Putin, Pavel is rewarded for his loyalty to the regime with a new apartment by the end of the film.
‘Mr. Nobody Against Putin’ Shines a Light on the Heavy Propaganda of the Russian Government

Image Via The Sundance Institute 

It’s clear from the outset of Mr. Nobody Against Putin that as the invasion begins, so too comes the propaganda. Pasha documents the changes in schedules as teachers must take time out of their day to film that they are teaching the proper ideology to their students while those same students are fed lines to parrot back for the documentation. So much time is spent on this indoctrination that school test scores lower as a result of the time taken up by this duty. Although it appalls Pasha, it’s thanks to an anonymous sponsor who asks him to make a movie about the effect of the war on the school that makes him committed to filming it all.
We witness as teachers say, “If you live in our country, and you don’t like it, you’re a parasite,” while we watch as the school assembles the students when a group of literal mercenaries comes in to show the kids their weapons of war. Propaganda films made by the government reason the invasion as “denazification” of the country and taking out “neo-nazis” still in Ukraine. Those deemed “traitors of the country” for questioning or opposing the war are threatened with 25 years in prison.
Documenting what happens in the school feels like Pasha’s way of protesting against this suffocating wave of change. At one point, defeated by the clear brainwashing happening in the schools, he says, exasperated, “I love my job, but I don’t want to be a pawn of the regime.” His small town is full of pro-war supporters, and every day at the school more and more zealous adoration must be proven. Students have drills where they march every morning and sing national songs, boys graduate and shave their heads as they are drafted off to the war, and families secretly bury their dead who have been killed on the frontline because filming and publicizing them is dangerous.
‘Mr. Nobody Against Putin’ Touches on the Russian Cost of the Ukrainian Invasion

Image via Sundance

Notably, one flaw of Mr. Nobody Against Putin is the lack of exploration into the Ukrainian side of the invasion. Yes, the film is primarily about the people of Karabash, but because the invasion is such a large part of the documentary, and Ukraine and Russia’s history goes back more than just a few years, it feels like a point that could have been expanded on, not to mention Russia’s invasion of Crimea. When watching Mr. Nobody Against Putin, I couldn’t help but make a direct connection to Mstyslav Chernov’s recent 2000 Meters to Andriivka, which documents the other side of the invasion from the perspective of Ukrainian soldiers. In 2000 Meters, we watch as Ukrainian soldiers attack and try to take back their land against Russian forces. At one point, when they speak to a Russian soldier, they ask him why they would invade their home, and, shell-shocked, the soldier replies that he simply doesn’t know.
The worst part of Mr. Nobody Against Putin is seeing Pasha’s young students as they prepare to be shipped off into war knowing that they might end up dying in a field, far away from home, not really knowing why they’re there. At one point, Pasha notes that death numbers from the Russian side are highly sensitive information for the regime. The world knows that Russia has lost countless forces, and it’s clear that the people fighting in these wars are not all passionate supporters, but the information is kept secret by the government for obvious reasons. Is it worth the patriotism and loyalty to the regime if your son, husband, or father is only being shipped off to become canon fodder?
At one point, Pasha’s student Masha writes a letter to a soldier on the frontline and tells him to be safe, talking about her own brother who she misses, bringing her to tears. Despite the joys of school graduation, the film inevitably has the shadow of death lingering over it. While Karabash remains safe from any invading forces, it’s clear that as the government wages its war, the people of the country are the ones who have to pay the price. Some are brainwashed into believing it’s their right, while others simply have to silently accept their losses, unable to voice their dissatisfaction or opposition for fear of incarceration. While the plight of Ukraine is undeniably horrific, Mr. Nobody Against Putin shows a very real cost and the damaging ripple effect this invasion will have on Russian civilians.

Mr. Nobody Against Putin

A small town teacher takes on the massive Russian propaganda machine in a stirring documentary of resistance.

Release Date

January 25, 2025

Runtime

90 Minutes

Director

David Borenstein

Writers

David Borenstein

Pros & Cons

The documentary presents an intimate look at the small town that makes the viewer feel like they are a part of the community.
Pasha Talankin is the perfect subject and director for this role and you can feel his passion and love clearly on screen.

The film could have done with a bit more balance discussing the Ukrainian side of the invasion.