When Russia's invasion of Ukraine began, Pavel 'Pasha' Talankin found himself waging a silent one-man war to save the town of Karabash’s youth from falling into the vortex of the Kremlin’s propaganda machine.František Svatoš/Supplied
The Russian town of Karabash is, to some, a living nightmare. One of the most polluted places on the planet thanks to its century-old copper-smelting plant, the region was once recognized by the Russian Ministry of the Environment as an “ecological disaster zone,” with an average life expectancy of just 45. Yet inside Karabash there lives a bright light of humanity named Pavel “Pasha” Talankin, whose indefatigable spirit stands in stark contrast to the town’s cold, dark reputation.
Or, at least, he used to live there.
Today, Talankin calls Europe home. But two years ago, he was working in a Karabash primary school as an events co-ordinator and videographer. While life inside Karabash was always hard, it became immeasurably more challenging after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched an invasion of Ukraine in February, 2022. Suddenly, Talankin found himself waging a silent one-man war to save the town’s youth from falling into the vortex of the Kremlin’s propaganda machine. And it is a battle the rest of the world is now able to witness thanks to the thrilling and at times unbelievable new documentary Mr Nobody Against Putin, which was nominated for Best Documentary at the Academy Awards, coming up next month.
Largely consisting of footage shot by Talankin inside classrooms, the doc provides first-hand evidence of how Russian educators are sometimes coerced, and sometimes enthusiastically conscripted, into becoming propagandists for Putin. There are scenes in which schoolchildren are told that those who disagree with the war in Ukraine are “parasites,” and lectures from the likes of Pavel Abdulmanov, a history teacher who namechecks the head of Stalin’s secret police as a hero. And all of the footage might not have escaped Russia if it were not for a chance online connection between Talankin and David Borenstein, an American filmmaker based in Denmark, who was looking for a window into day-to-day Russian life since the war began.
Mr. Nobody Against Putin provides first-hand evidence of how Russian educators are sometimes coerced, and sometimes enthusiastically conscripted, into becoming propagandists for Putin.Pavel Talankin/Supplied
“Pasha had been recording these propaganda classes as part of a government program for patriotic military education – he was required to do so, and upload it to some sort of database to prove that these programs were being taught. But he didn’t want to delete it afterward, he wanted to send it to the West to expose the brainwashing that was happening,” says Borenstein, who secured Talankin’s contact via a mutual acquaintance. “His footage brings you into this kind of flux of daily life in the school, giving this first-person perspective.”
While Borenstein had a vague idea of what kind of indoctrination was happening in Russian schools, he was frequently shocked by what Talankin recorded inside the classrooms.
In a scene from Mr. Nobody against Putin, Wagner mercenaries demonstrate how weapons are used to Russian students.
“The very first thing that was shot was of the history teacher teaching the kids what’s happening in Europe right now, saying that the French are riding around horses because there’s no more oil from Russia, and that there are pro-Russia protests everywhere,” Borenstein recalls. “It was fascinating and shocking to see the ideological underpinnings of this full-scale invasion of Ukraine play out in real time.”
Over encrypted e-mails, the relationship between the two men evolved from that of director and subject to something deeper, with Talankin earning a credit as a co-director on the doc. For Talankin, it was all about trusting a man he had never met in-person – an especially large leap of faith given that Russians who criticize the war are regularly jailed.
Mr Nobody Against Putin was nominated for Best Documentary at the Academy Awards, coming up next month.Pavel Talankin/Supplied
“I really do think about it differently now than during the process. I was probably working from a kind of fury and helplessness and wanting to do something. I needed to show this footage to people to show what was happening,” Talankin says in an interview via a translator. “But I understand now how very fine a line I was walking.”
For his part, Borenstein knew that he was acting as both a documentarian and a lifeline for Talankin. The gravity of the situation was dealt with from the very beginning of the production process.
“The No. 1 thing is that I had the advantage of not having to make all these decisions myself. BBC came on the project at a very early stage, and they gave us use of their security team and their editorial policy team. We were able to make collective decisions and do so based on experiences that the BBC had previously working in Russia,” says Borenstein. “But of course there were so many nights throughout the process that were sleepless, just because I was so worried about Pasha. But you have to remind yourself that he is his own person. We offered him tools and ways of working that made it safer, but at the end of the day, we all understood the risks.”
While he was collecting and sharing his footage, Talankin had the sense that he might have to leave Karabash, where his mother still lives, for another town in Russia. It eventually dawned on him that he would need to leave the country altogether, using a vacation to Turkey as cover for the start of his new life. (His suitcase contained no bathing suits, but plenty of hard drives.)
Pavel Talankin was forced to flee Russia, using a vacation to Turkey as cover for the start of his new life. He now calls Europe home.Pavel Talankin/Supplied
Talankin is currently travelling alongside the documentary as it makes its way through the Oscars campaign, which offers a different kind of absurd reality than the one he was used to living. A few minutes after sitting down for an interview, he was off for the traditional Oscars nominee luncheon inside the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles, a long way from Karabash but just a few feet from Leonardo DiCaprio and Emma Stone.
“At the moment, I don’t see any hope of returning at all,” Talankin says. “If they are asking questions about me in briefings to the press secretary at the Kremlin, there is no way I could consider going back.’
Still, the so-called Mr. Nobody takes comfort in knowing that his film has already made a difference in his home country.
“A lot of teachers there have started to write to me, saying how we were waiting and hoping that someone would tell the world what was happening,” Talankin says. “They just never imagined it’d be someone from Karabash, this hole in the middle of nowhere.”
Mr Nobody Against Putin opens at the TIFF Lightbox in Toronto Feb. 13.