Russia bans Oscar-winning film Mr Nobody Against Putin
A court in Russia has banned the screening of the documentary Mr Nobody Against Putin on three streaming platforms, claiming it promotes extremism and terrorism.
Source: BBC
Details: The ruling was issued by a court in Chelyabinsk, near the town of Karabash, where the author of the footage, Pavel Talankin, works. The film must be removed from three Russian online platforms – VK, Yandex and Motion Video.
According to Russian media outlets, prosecutors argued that the documentary expresses a negative attitude towards Russia's policies and the current government. As reported by DW, Russia's Presidential Human Rights Council had previously complained about alleged violations of minors' rights in the film. Appeals were sent to the Oscars organising committee and to UNESCO Director-General Khaled El-Enany.
In early March, the film won an Oscar for Best Documentary Feature. It tells the story of the intensification of military propaganda in a Russian school following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The main protagonist, Pavel Talankin from Karabash in Chelyabinsk Oblast, works as a school videographer and records propaganda lessons, which are meant to be submitted to authorities as reports.
While filming these lessons, Talankin connected online with director and producer David Borenstein, who later compiled the material and secured funding for the film.
"Much of the symbolism embedded in the film's title echoes the rhetoric of the Russian opposition – an abstract 'Mr Nobody', the protagonist, versus Putin as a singular evil that has distorted his beloved country.
Talankin himself, in an interview with a Russian opposition outlet, calls himself a patriot and says the film is about love – for his city and his homeland. For him, 'war is grief, war is death. And a bad peace is better than war'. People here (in Europe) think the same, and I do not feel any inner dissonance," said UP.Culture film critic Sonia Vseliubska.
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