The film "Mr. Nobody vs Putin" won an Oscar for Best Documentary Feature
The film *Mr Nobody vs Putin* has won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature, reports *The Guardian*.
The film tells the story of primary school teacher Pavel Talankin, who documented how his pupils were persuaded to support the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Talankin is currently living in exile in Europe.
He received the award alongside the film’s co-director, David Borenstein. In this category, the film beat “A Wonderful Neighbour”, as well as other films, including “The Alabama Solution”, “Come Visit Me in a Good Light” and “Breaking Through the Rocks”.
During his acceptance speech, David Borenstein thanked his family, friends, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and the other nominees.
“The film ‘Mr Nobody vs Putin’ is about how one can lose one’s country,” he said. “And whilst working on this material, we saw that it is lost through countless small acts of complicity.”
He also said that a moral choice arises when the government kills people on the streets of major cities, when society remains silent, and when oligarchs take over the media and control how information is created and consumed.
“But, fortunately, no one is as powerless as you think,” said David Borenstein.
Pavlo Talankin spoke from the stage on behalf of countries where, instead of shooting stars, there are bombs and drones.
“For the sake of our future, for the sake of all our children, stop all these wars immediately,” he said.
Reuters notes that the film tells the story of a young Russian teacher who is quietly resisting Russia’s war against Ukraine. The film, created by David Borenstein and Pavel Talankin, uses two years of footage shot by Talankin to show how the Russian state imposes pro-war messages on schoolchildren.
The film also documents the persecution of Pavel Talankin and his subsequent expulsion.
Ukrainian director Mstislav Chernov’s film 2000 Metres to Andriivka was submitted in this same category, but did not make it onto the shortlist of nominees.
After the ceremony, David Borenstein, speaking to journalists backstage, said that whilst working with the Russian team, he constantly compared the situation in the US with that in Russia.
“But many of my Russian colleagues and friends always said: ‘No, no, it’s not the same situation. In fact, things happen much faster in America than they did in Russia.’ Trump acts much faster than Putin did in his early years,” he said.
This is the third time in a decade that a film critical of the Russian authorities has won the award in this category. Previously, the award was won by Navalny in 2023 and 20 Days in Mariupol in 2024.
