Mr. Nobody Against Putin

What does it mean to resist authoritarianism? Sometimes it starts with playing a Lady Gaga song to a group of students. Pavel Talankin is this documentary’s protagonist, and its unlikely co-director. He was proud of his work as a primary school teacher — a “Mr. Nobody” playing his small part in his community—before the Russian government, in the wake of the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, began requiring schools to hold indoctrination sessions. Talankin (already feeling pressure as a gay man living under an antigay regime) attempts both to document the damage being done and to mitigate it, striving to tell the truth even as, in his telling, “all walls are closing in.” With this remarkable film, he proves himself—working with directing partner David Borenstein—an accomplished director, and, more importantly, a gifted teacher. When he blasts Gaga’s rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner” instead of the Russian anthem, he’s showing his students, and audiences worldwide, a lesson about what it means to stand up, in whatever way one can. For its clarity of vision about the obstacles Talankin faces, and for its big-hearted vision of protest as something each of us can accomplish, Mr. Nobody Against Putin wins a Peabody Award.