MR. NOBODY AGAINST PUTIN (Denmark-Czech Republic, 2025, 90′)

Sunday October 5th, at 3 p.m., Cinema Massimo, Screen 3

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

Pavel Talankin, known as Pasha, is an event coordinator and official video maker for the biggest school in Karabash, Russian city of ten thousand inhabitants set in a mining area. The moment Vladimir Putin declares war against Ukraine, his personal and professional life changes. He gets involved in propaganda against his will. Memorandums ensuring patriotism programs get carried out keep coming. Pasha, empathetic and ironic, is very open with his students, but now he is forced to promote the regime ideology, while the school changes, soldiers enter classrooms, and students get enlisted. Pasha films everything with his camera, including himself, confiding his thoughts to it. As soon as his safety is threatened, he decides to flee to avoid betraying his ideals.

David Borenstein (USA), director in both cinema and television, screenwriter and producer, has a journalistic, radiophonic and television formation. He debuted in long feature films with his documentary Dream Empire. He worked as photography director and producer in The Hand That Feeds (2014). With the Russian teacher and video maker Pavel Talankin he directed Mr. Nobody Against Putin, awarded with the World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award at the Sundance Film Festival 2025. He lives in Copenhagen.

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