Review: 'Mr. Nobody Against Putin' captures a teacher's journey down the slippery slope of authoritarianism, and shows us how to avoid the same march

We try to tell ourselves that when authoritarianism comes along, we’d recognize it. The Oscar-winning documentary “Mr. Noboy Against Putin” is a timely and chilling reminder that fascism won’t bang on the door, but slip past in the disguise of patriotism and “helping” the children.

Pavel Talankin, who goes by Pasha, teaches at the Karabash Primary School No. 1, in a small town in the Urals in Russia, a few hours’ drive east of Moscow. It’s a dreary place, best known for some of the worst pollution in the world, but for Pasha it’s still home and he loves it. He brings flowers to his mother, the librarian, and gives his students space to speak freely about whatever troubles them.

Pasha has two jobs at the school: He’s the event coordinator, which means he organizes Cake Day and other happenings; and he’s the school’s videographer. That second job takes on added importance in February 2022, when Russia’s leader, Vladimir Putin, begins what Russian media euphemistically calls “special military operations” — and the rest of the world calls the invasion of Ukraine.

Soon, all the schools in Russia are given a new directive, called “the new federal patriotic education policy.” Now, in addition to their daily math and reading lessons, the students must recite patriotic songs and speeches, and read poems about Russia’s “glorious victory” over Ukraine. And Pasha must dart from class to class, capturing it all on camera. He must then upload the footage to a federal database, to prove that the school is complying with the new directive. 

In Pasha’s video footage, we see teachers reading prepared scripts that tell of the “neo-Nazis” who dictate Ukrainian policy, or arguing that the French are paying exorbitant prices for a tank of gas because of their country’s support of Ukraine. Pasha’s camera also captures how some teachers are reading unenthusiastically from the government script, while others embrace the message and are happy to spout propaganda rather than deliver some hard facts.

After first opting to resign on principle, Pasha decides he should stay, to make a video record of everything that’s happening — and the slow, inexorable descent into full-blown fascist misinformation. The capper, in Pasha’s mind, is the day the Wagner Group, the mercenary military force Putin hired to fight in Ukraine, comes to school to give weapons demonstrations.

Pasha also captures his coworkers’ frustration with the changing rules, and his students’ growing despondency at both the lesson plans and the fact that friends and siblings are headed off to fight in Putin’s war — and, in many cases, not coming back.

The teacher, Pavel Talankin, shares directing credit with David Borenstein, a veteran of PBS and New York Times documentaries. The movie shows how they started working together, meeting via Instagram – and the fact that the two men don’t meet in person until the events of the film are over. The movie’s prologue shows Pasha getting ready to make a getaway out of Russia, when it becomes too dangerous to stay.

Talankin’s footage, and his to-the-camera confessionals from his tiny apartment, show the gradual descent toward authoritarian rule — from the rote learning to the crony system that rewards the government suck-up over the teacher the students actually like and respect. The movie also shows how exhausting it is for Pasha to keep up the pretense, to document events for us while pretending to document events for the government. It’s a harsh reminder of what our country could soon experience, if it isn’t there already.

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‘Mr. Nobody Against Putin’

★★★1/2

Opens Friday, March 20, at the Broadway Centre Cinemas (Salt Lake City). Not rated, but probably PG-13 for language and descriptions of war violence. Running time: 90 minutes; in Russian, with subtitles.