Academy Award® Nominated Doc, MR. NOBODY AGAINST PUTIN, Opens 3/6 in Chicago

ACADEMY AWARD® NOMINEE

Best Documentary Feature Film

a film by DAVID BORENSTEIN & PAVEL TALANKIN

OPENS MARCH 6TH IN CHICAGO

https://www.siskelfilmcenter.org/mr-nobody-against-putin

WINNER

2025 Sundance Film Festival

World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award

Cinema Eye Honors

Unforgettables Honoree – Pavel Talankin

NOMINEE

PGA Awards

Outstanding Producer of Documentary Motion Pictures

Kino Lorber is proud to present David Borenstein & Pavel Talankin's Academy Award® nominated Mr. Nobody Against Putin, a riveting first-person expose of Russia's propaganda machine told through the eyes of a small-town primary school teacher. Mr. Nobody Against Putin is now playing in select theaters.

Pasha Talankin is an unlikely hero – a beloved Russian primary school teacher, known as a mentor and prankster, who offers students a safe haven in his office. After Russia invades Ukraine, Pasha’s role in the school changes dramatically as he is reluctantly drawn into Putin’s propaganda machine. Forced to promote state-sanctioned messages and horrified by the transformation of his school and community, he struggles with guilt and a sense of powerlessness, leading him to become an international whistleblower. As the school’s videographer, Pasha documents intimate and revealing footage of Putin’s regime, capturing the rise of militarized children’s groups, repressive laws, fervent nationalism, and the recruitment of graduating students to fight in the war. When he learns his own life may be at risk, Pasha is forced to plan a dangerous escape from Russia.

Directed by David Borenstein and co-directed by Pasha Talankin, this uniquely collaborative film is as captivating and joyful as it is eye-opening and sobering. Mr. Nobody Against Putin showcases rare footage that reveals the profound impact of Putin’s regime on the lives of everyday Russians, particularly its children.

“Nothing short of an act of rebellion… demonstrates that resistance begins with individuals and is carried out at great, courageous risk.”

– Nick Schager, The Daily Beast

“Through the eyes of its delightfully brave, yet utterly relatable subject (also the de facto cinematographer), this terrifying, revelatory and poignant exposé offers an unseen

human angle on an ongoing conflict.”

– Carlos Aguilar, Variety

“In the wave of documentaries about the Ukraine War that have come out over the past two years, there hasn’t been one that’s offered what David Borenstein’s Mr. Nobody Against Putin does — and certainly not with such wit, verve, and insight: The view inside Russia. It is a unicorn.”

– Christian Blauvelt, Indiewire

“A cross between School of Rock and Nineteen Eighty-Four, a surprisingly funny study of how authoritarian regimes break the spirit of all except the most unlikely.”

– Helen Rumbelow, The Times

2025 | 90 minutes | Denmark, Czechia