Mr. Nobody Against Putin

Mr. Nobody Against Putin is a 2025 documentary film directed by David Borenstein. It premiered at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award.

Mr. Nobody Against Putin
Sundance release poster
Directed by	David Borenstein Pavel Talankin
Written by	David Borenstein
Produced by	Helle Faber Radovan Síbrt Alžběta Karásková Petra Dobešová
Cinematography	Pavel Talankin
Edited by	Nicolaj Monberg Rebekka Lønqvist
Music by	Michal Rataj Jonas Struck
Production companies	Made in Copehnhagen Pink Productions
Release date	January 25, 2025 (2025-01-25) (Sundance Film Festival)[1]
Languages	Russian English

Background

Mr. Nobody Against Putin was shot over a period of two years by Pavel "Pasha" Talankin, the videographer and events coordinator at Karabash Primary School #1.^[2] Talankin began seriously documenting his activities after the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, when the government began requiring schools to hold regular "patriotic displays" and use a state-written curriculum to justify the invasion to students.^[2] At the same time, the government instituted a requirement to upload footage of these displays to a state-run portal to prove compliance, allowing Talankin cover to film meetings, lessons, and visitors to the school without attracting suspicion.^[3] Talankin initially planned to resign in order to avoid supporting the Russian government, however, after getting in contact with the documentary's producer he withdrew his resignation to keep gathering footage.^[3]

Critical reception

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 100% of 18 critics' reviews are positive.^[4] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 79 out of 100, based on 7 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.^[5]

IndieWire published a positive review, giving the film a grade of "A-" and praising the documentary for its undercover footage of life inside Russia.^[2] The Guardian was similarly positive and praised Talankin for his bravery in capturing footage.^[6] The Daily Beast and Variety also published positive reviews.^[3][7] The A.V. Club was more critical, noting that the film's focus on a single school made it feel limited in scope and that several narrative threads were dropped as the film continued.^[8]

The film received the World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival.^[9]