The film "Mr. Nobody Against Putin" angers even anti-war Russians. Dolin explained why

A still from the film "Mr. Nobody Against Putin"

Pavel Talankin, a pedagogical organizer at School No. 1 in the Ural city of Karabash, spent two years after the start of Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine filming videos about the life of the educational institution. During this time, he had to record not only open lessons, graduations, and competitions, but also "Conversations about important matters," Russian flag-raising ceremonies, meetings with war participants, and other "patriotic" events.

According to him, about 90% of what was filmed consisted of videos for reports to the Ministry of Education.

In June 2024, Pavel managed to leave Russia, taking with him seven hard drives with materials. Together with American director David Boreinstein, they edited a film that became a phenomenon. The film was even nominated for an "Oscar."

The former teacher claims that neither his relatives nor the characters shown in the film suspected that a documentary was being made. After the film's release, he faced criticism — for using children in the frame without permission, and also from teachers.

"Is it a moral dilemma for you to film people who ended up in the film without knowing they would become its characters? Because, firstly, they might not look as they would like in the frame, and secondly, it could create problems for them."

Film critic Anton Dolin answered this question in an interview with the German YouTube channel "BILD на русском."

Павялічыць

Video screenshot: bild_ru / YouTube

The film critic noted that in modern Russia, problems can arise for anyone — regardless of whether a person appeared in a film or not, whether they are against the war or for it, whether they support the government or not.

"It's a bit like a hellish lottery. Something like 'Squid Game.' It seems to me that everyone has already gotten used to this idea. And that's why everyone is afraid."

Dolin noted that the film's premiere took place a year ago, and if the authorities had wanted to punish any of its participants (apart from the author himself), they would have already done so.

"If some teacher or, God forbid, a high school student had been arrested, we would have known about it. But the main thing is that the film already shows the bad things that are happening to them. For example, these children, who just finished school yesterday, are taken to war. Many of them return in zinc coffins. (...) It seems to me that this is a much greater danger than someone making a film about you," the film critic observes.

Regarding the accusations that people were filmed without permission and shown "not as they thought they would be," Dolin asserts that documentary cinema has its own rules:

"Something that is filmed exclusively with the permission of those being filmed, and used in a way that they have the right to decide how to use it, well, rarely is called documentary cinema. (...)

Documentary filmmaking, generally speaking, often involves filming, well, by 'pirate' methods. (...) The film 'Mr. Nobody Against Putin' added absolutely nothing to more than a hundred years of documentary tradition. This is how documentary cinema is made. That's all."

Why is there so much criticism directed at the film, including from anti-war Russians?

Answering this question, Dolin noted that the reason is very simple: "It's just unpleasant to watch all this. Unpleasant. Especially for people living in Russia, regardless of their views. Something very shameful, very ugly is shown, with which these people, who don't like this spectacle and who don't like the war, are forced to live."

According to him, people sometimes either don't know that such things are happening, or — even worse — they know, but can do nothing.

"It's very shameful when something terrible is happening next to you, and it's not war, (...) but simply teachers hammering some trash into children's heads. Often, especially if you don't live in Moscow, you also can't do anything about it. Even if it's your child. But it's very shameful."

Dolin believes that it is precisely this shame and despair that many "lash out at the author," who, unlike them, came up with something to do.

"And so as not to tell him how clever he is for coming up with and not being afraid to do something, they say: 'he's not clever at all, he's a scoundrel, because he did something unethical,'" Dolin explains.

At the same time, the critic himself emphasizes:

"I don't think anyone should be ashamed and that anyone here is a scoundrel.

It seems to me that in a totalitarian state, everyone survives as best they can. And if you are not directly involved in punitive actions, then there are no moral claims against you. At least from me. But sometimes people judge themselves much more strictly than someone else judges them from the outside."

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