The documentary Mr. Nobody Against Putin by American director David Borenstein and videographer Pavel Talankin from the Ural town of Karabash has won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature.
At the ceremony, Talankin spoke in Russian. “For four years, we have been looking at the starry sky and making the most important wish. A very important wish. But there are countries where, instead of shooting stars, bombs fall from the sky and drones fly overhead. For the sake of our future, for the sake of all our children, let us stop all wars. Now,” he said from the stage.
In his speech, the film’s director David Borenstein said that the documentary is about the gradual loss of a country through everyday compromises. “When we become complicit, when the government kills people in the streets of our major cities, when we say nothing, when oligarchs seize the media and control our production and consumption, we all face a moral choice. But fortunately, even a ‘nobody’ can be far stronger than you think,” Borenstein said.
For several years, Pavel Talankin worked as an events coordinator and videographer at School No. 1 in the town of Karabash, a copper-producing industrial town of 10,000 people in the Chelyabinsk region. After the start of Russia’s war against Ukraine in 2022, he was instructed by the school administration and the Ministry of Education to film school assemblies, meetings, ceremonial events, and lessons for reporting purposes, including sessions from the “Conversations About Important Things” series.
These recordings became the basis of the film. In the summer of 2024, Talankin left Russia and took the footage with him. Later, together with American documentarian David Borenstein, the film was edited from these recordings: Borenstein served as director, while Talankin is credited as co-director and cinematographer.
Talankin himself had previously said about the footage: “What I captured on camera was Ordinary Fascism — Part 2.” Ordinary Fascism is a Soviet documentary by Mikhail Romm, released in 1965. The film tells the story of the history and rise of fascism in Europe, as well as the totalitarian system and the crimes of Nazi Germany.
In pro-Kremlin Russian media, the film was described as “anti-Russian.” After the film’s release, security officers visited the school where Talankin had worked. His mother, who worked there as a librarian and occasionally substituted for teachers, was forced to resign, local media reported.
The film premiered on January 25 at the Sundance independent film festival. According to regional media outlets, it had “the effect of an exploding bomb” in Karabash. In Z-channels, Talankin was called a traitor.
The film had previously also received a BAFTA award.
