Videographer Smuggled Footage out of Russia to Make Oscar Nominated Documentary

A Russian videographer who secretly filmed state propaganda and smuggled the footage out of the country is now an Academy Award nominee for the documentary Mr. Nobody Against Putin.

Pavel Talankin previously worked as a videographer and events coordinator at a secondary school in Karabash, a struggling industrial town in Russia’s Ural Mountains.

After Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, President Vladimir Putin outlawed all public criticism of the national military. At the same time, Russian authorities ordered schools to replace regular lessons with patriotic displays, military drills, and a state-written curriculum designed to justify the invasion to students.

As these changes took hold, 34-year-old Talankin decided to document what was happening inside his school. He began filming the new lessons, assemblies, songs, and morning drills that reflected the growing nationalist propaganda.

A still from the trailer for ‘Mr. Nobody against Putin’

Talankin teamed up with American filmmaker David Borenstein, and over the next two years, the videographer quietly recorded daily school life as it was reshaped by state ideology. Talankin was able to film secretly because the Russian government required schools to upload videos of patriotic activities to a state-run portal to prove compliance, giving the videographer cover to record lessons, meetings, and visitors without raising suspicion.

While in Russia, Talankin and Borenstein spoke weekly via encrypted phone calls and developed a secure method for transferring video files. Talankin later fled Russia, carrying hard drives containing his footage. After smuggling the material out of the country and into Denmark, he and Borenstein created the 90-minute documentary Mr. Nobody Against Putin.

The film has been widely praised as a chilling account of how state propaganda enters everyday life and how children become part of the machinery of war. Last week, Mr. Nobody Against Putin was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.

In an interview with AFP, Talankin says the project came at a high personal cost. He has become a hate figure for pro-war supporters in Russia. The videographer was forced into exile in Europe following the film’s release, and left behind his family in Russia. But, despite the huge personal sacrifices, Talankin does not regret making the documentary.

“Of course, it was all worth it,” he says.