Moscow has designated Pavel Talankin, the teacher and filmmaker who filmed in a school in Russia for the Oscar-winning documentary “Mr. Nobody Against Putin” mid-month, as a “foreign agent”, reports Reuters.
Talankin's name appeared Friday on the Justice Department's online list of foreign agents — a term with connotations of espionage that Moscow applies to people deemed involved in foreign-backed anti-Russian activities.
The documentary by Talankin and David Borenstein uses two years of footage that Talankin recorded at a school where he was employed in Russia's Chelyabinsk region to show how students were exposed to pro-war propaganda.
The film was controversial even among Russians opposed to Putin and the war in Ukraine, with some criticizing Talankin for filming colleagues and children without their consent for his clandestine project.
The Oscar-winning teacher said he filmed his documentary as a testament to posterity
Talankin, who fled Russia in 2024, defended the film as a testament to posterity, meant to show how “an entire generation became angry and aggressive”.
Accepting the Oscar at the Hollywood gala on March 15, the 35-year-old Russian teacher and filmmaker called for an end to wars.
Individuals included by Russia on its list of foreign agents are subject to burdensome bureaucratic requirements and restrictions on income earned in Russia. They are required to mention in any public message that they are “foreign agents”, including those published on social networks.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said after the Oscars that he had not seen the film and therefore could not comment on it.
Also on Friday, the Central District Court of Chelyabinsk banned the broadcasting of Talankin's documentary on Russian territory, after the prosecutor's office requested it.
The authorities considered the film to express a “negative attitude” towards the war in Ukraine, as well as towards the current power in Moscow and towards President Vladimir Putin personally.
