Mr. Nobody Against Putin (Denmark, Czech Republic, 2025, 90′)

Wednesday 30 September, 4.30 p.m., Centro Incontro Circoscrizione 7, Corso Casale, 212

In collaboration with Centro Incontro Circoscrizione 7 and Università della terza Età (Unitre).

On Wednesday 30 September at 4.30 p.m., Job Film Days, in collaboration with Centro Incontro Circoscrizione 7 and Università della terza Età (Unitre) – new Festival partners – presents Mr. Nobody Against Putin by David Borenstein and Pavel Talankin at Centro Incontro Circoscrizione 7, Corso Casale 212.

The film explores the effects of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Pasha, a teacher and videomaker in a small Russian town who has been forced to film propaganda since the war began. At Job Film Days 2025, Mr. Nobody Against Putin won Best Film in the “Lavoro 2025” JFD – INAIL Piemonte international competition, as well as the Best Film award presented by the student jury from Università di Torino, Politecnico di Torino and Scuola Holden. In 2026, it won Best Documentary at the British Academy Film Awards and the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.

Admission: free.

International title: Mr. Nobody Against Putin
Original title: Mr. Nobody Against Putin
Director: David Borenstein, Pavel Talankin
Screenplay: David Borenstein
Photography: Pavel Talankin
Edit: Rebekka Lønqvist, Nicolaj Monberg
Music: Michal Rataj, Jonas Struck 
Production: Made in Copenhagen, ZDF/Arte 

Pavel Talankin, better known as Pasha, is the event coordinator and the official video maker of the most famous school in Karabash, a ten thousand inhabitants Russian city situated in a mining area. When Vladimir Putin declares war to Ukraine, his personal and professional life drastically changes. He becomes involved in the propaganda against his will. Official directives arrive mandating patriotic programs. Pasha, being empathic and ironic, has an open relation with his students. But now he is forced to promote the regime’s ideology, while the school changes, letting soldiers enter the classrooms to recruit students. Pasha records everything with his camera, including himself, confiding his thoughts to it. When his life is endangered, he decides to flee rather than repudiate his own ideas. 

Mr. Nobody Against Putin won the best movie award of the international contest “Lavoro 2025” JFD – INAIL Piedmont as well as the best film prize, awarded by the student jury from the University of Turin, the Polytechnic University of Turin, and Scuola Holden at Job Film Days 2025. In 2026, it was awarded as best documentary at the British Academy Film Awarded and it won the Oscar for best documentary. 

David Borenstein (USA), cinema and television director, screenwriter and producer, has a background in broadcast and television journalism. He debuted in the long feature film category with the documentary Dream Empire. He worked as photography director and producer in The Hand That Feeds (2014). With Pavel Talakin, Russian teacher and videomaker, he shot Mr. Nobody Against Putin, winner at Sundance Film Festival 2025 and the World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award. He lives in Copenhagen.   

Selected filmography: Dream Empire (doc., 2016), Love Factory (NYTimes Opdoc) (sf, doc., 2021), Can’t Feel Nothing (doc., 2024), Mr. Nobody Against Putin (doc., 2025, con Pavel Talankin).