June 15

Day 15

Today’s June Swoon 5 film is another Oscar winner that I had not seen prior to today. It won the Academy Award for the Best Documentary Feature in 2026 and it was entitled Mr. Nobody Against Putin.

My initial thoughts were that this was about the war in Ukraine, and, while the Ukraine War was a major theme of the film, the center of the doc was different.

Pavel Talankin was the main character of the doc, and he was a teacher/teacher organizer/school videographer at a school in the Russian city of Karabash, a town known as the most toxic and poisonous town in Russia. Pavel began filming in earnest after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, when the Russian government required schools to have regular “patriotic displays” and use state-written curriculum.

Pavel was always one for openness and freedom, proving what he called a safe space for the students to express themselves. These governmental requirements became such an opposition to what he believed that he went as far as to resign. However, when he was contacted by  director David Borenstein about a response Pavel had made to an Instagram post, Pavel rescinded his resignation to compile more film for a documentary on how the war was affecting the school he worked at.

There were some amazing moments in the doc, none more shocking than when, prior to a Russian flag ceremony at the school, Pavel played the “Star-Spangled Banner” as performed by Lady Ga Ga. I was shocked that he was allowed to get away with that and that did not get him arrested or removed from the school.

The doc featured several other intriguing characters such as “Pavel Abdulmanov, a pro-Putin history teacher; a student named Masha, whose brother fights and later dies in the war; and former students who are drafted into the army“-(Wikipedia)

I was completely fascinated by this powerful, first person film and the perspective it brought to the situation that the school found itself in. As a teacher myself, I could not comprehend how I would react to the same situation and I pray that I never have to find out. Mr. Nobody Against Putin is a tremendous work with some extreme emotional moments.