OSCARS 2026: Mr. Nobody Against Putin (2025)

The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Science must fucking hate Vladimir Putin. I mean, I get it. He seems like a real prick. If you're going to pick a current world leader to vilify, he's an understandable choice. However, it does strike me as mildly interesting that, since 2017, six documentaries critical of the Russian president have been nominated for an Oscar, three of them winning. One of those was before the war in the Ukraine started, back when Putin was only moderately more evil than your average president. There's lots of atrocities in the world. America probably did some more since last night but I guess Putin is a suitably despicable figurehead for the Hollywood set to focus their hate on. This year's anti-Putin doc puts his name in the title too. “Mr. Nobody Against Putin,” it's called, and it's the latest film to remind us why this guy sucks. 

The Mr. Nobody spoken of in the title is neither Jared Leto nor the leader of the Brotherhood of Dada. Instead, it is Pavel “Pasha” Talakin. He is a teacher and videographer at a primary school in Karabash, Russia. His job is fairly mundane at first. With the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, however, orders come down from on high that their will be a change in school curriculum. The government now requires public education to include regular displays of patriotic fervor and the faculty to teach material focused on glorifying Russia's military and demonizing the Ukrainians. Part of Pasha's job is to upload videos of these demonstrations and lessons to an online archive, to show that schools are doing their national duty. Dismayed by the mandated turn towards hardcore propaganda, Talakin intends to resign... Before filmmaker David Borenstein reaches out to him to make a film on this topic. Using the footage he's already legally required to record, Talakin begins to document what he's seeing. 

“Mr. Nobody Against Putin” gives us a front row seat to the Russian propaganda machine. It is not an altogether unfamiliar sight. The kids are forced to march through the halls while waving Russian flags and singing the national anthem. Soldiers arrive to educate the young boys on land mines and let them pick up guns with emptied out magazines. When I was in high school, the army had recruitment booths in the cafeteria during lunch time. A daily march down the hallways is only slightly weirder than doing the Pledge of Allegiance every morning. The material the teachers have to read off to their students, about how Putin is “de-Nazifying” the Ukraine or how Crimea actually loves Russia, is dismaying. News programs broadcasting the message that Russia has to “kill people” in Ukraine for the love of their children is depressing. But so is watching Fox News for more than a minute. A Russian rock star sings a patriotic song over footage of missiles launching, which is basically what the entire country music industry became circa 2001. I don't think the directors of “Mr. Nobody Against Putin” set out to make the point that Putin's ramped up propaganda machine is barely a rung above what the U.S. has been doing for the last twenty years but the implication struck me anyway. 

If my tone seems a bit glib given the subject matter, I'm merely following the lead of “Mr. Nobody Against Putin.” Mr. Talakin is a bit of a smart-ass. He introduces his home town by highlighting how ugly and industrial it is. It's pointed out that Karabash is home to a copper smeltery that, since 1994 at least, has led to a notable increase in birth defects and stunted growth among the town's youth. Multiple Youtube videos referring to it as Russia's most miserable town are briefly featured. Pasha seems quite happy to antagonize some of his coworkers and the government in the early scenes of “Mr. Nobody.” Such as when he plays the Lady Gaga version of “The Star Spangled Banner” when he's supposed to be honoring Mother Russia. At one point, he interviews one of the school teachers and asks him what Russian historical figures he admires. All his answers, we are quickly informed, are brutal enforcers during the Soviet years. This is played as a grim punchline of sorts.

I certainly can't object to anyone depending on gallows' humor in the face of propaganda and war crimes. I'm also not surprised that a Russian's sense of humor veers towards the dry and sarcastic. “Mr. Nobody Against Putin” does get notably more down-beat as it goes on. A friend of Pasha's is deployed and ends up dead, the sorrowful wails of his mother at the funeral. Some of his students or their siblings end up in the army. The doc's final moments are resigned and mournful. This feels like a major tonal shift after the more snide first half. It almost feels like the film is two docs in one, the first far more sarcastic than the ultimately bummed out mood it settles into.

Another unavoidable issue I had with “Mr. Nobody Against Putin” is that Talakin comes across as kind of unlikable. He is not the most charismatic of documentary host and his voice-overs are sometimes grating in their smugness. Any time a filmmaker centers themselves in what is otherwise a documentary about activism, it quickly starts to feel self-indulgent. Still, I do think “Mr Nobody” makes some good points, if a few probably by accident. I'm sure glad I don't live in an imperialistic nation run by a bloviating ogre that pumps its schools and air waves full of mindless support for the militaristic regime! [6/10]