A Russian court has banned the Oscar- and BAFTA-winning documentary 'Mr Nobody Against Putin,' ruling it promoted extremism and negative attitudes toward the state.
Directed by David Borenstein and Pavel Talankin, the film reveals how pro-war propaganda was injected into classrooms in Russia’s Chelyabinsk region after Ukraine’s invasion in 2022. Talankin, a schoolteacher, secretly filmed over two years before fleeing Russia in 2024.
The documentary premiered at Sundance in January 2025 and went on to win both the Academy Award for Best Documentary and the BAFTA.
After receiving the Oscar, Talankin said: "For four years we have looked at the sky for shooting stars... but in Russia, bombs fall from the sky. In the name of our future, stop all these wars."
Borenstein added: "You lose your country through countless small acts of complicity. Even a nobody is more powerful than you think."
Russian authorities claimed the film violated laws by filming children without parental consent. The Kremlin has intensified cultural suppression, with President Putin criticizing foreign films as "stupid and unnecessary."
RIA Novosti omitted the documentary’s Oscar win entirely in its coverage.