Pavel Talankin eager to go to Hollywood to defend his film on propaganda in Russian schools

Pavel Talankin, a young Russian in exile at the origin of a documentary Mr Nobody against Putinnominated Thursday January 22 for the Oscars, was delighted with AFP at the prospect “to go to Hollywood” defend this film which denounces the recruitment of youth in Russian schools. “I’ve already dusted off the shelf.” with the prospect of placing the statuette there, he joked, if the film wins the Oscar for best documentary at the 98th Academy Awards scheduled for Los Angeles on March 15.

Released in cinemas in France on January 7, the documentary is also visible on the platform of the Franco-German channel Arte, which is one of the co-producers.

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As a modest educational facilitator and videographer in a secondary school in the small town of Karabach, in the Urals, Pavel Talankin, 34, completely officially filmed the increasingly thorough recruitment of students, desired by ministerial directives following the invasion of Ukraine by the Russian army on February 24, 2022.

Opposed to this war, Pavel Talankin ended up fleeing Russia in the summer of 2024, with the hard drives containing the images behind the 90-minute documentary selected for the Oscars. These images made it possible to produce the documentary, co-signed by Pavel Talankin and the American director based in Denmark David Borenstein.

In exile in Prague

The Russian videographer now lives in exile in Prague, where he answered questions from AFP by telephone. “I would like to go to Hollywood”he declared, “I already have a visa”. Pavel Talankin does not hide the fact that it was painful for him to go into exile and leave his mother, brothers and sisters behind. But “it was worth it of course”he adds.

During the preselection of the film for the Oscars last December, David Borenstein paid tribute to Pavel Talankin in an interview with AFP. “He sacrificed so much to make this film and he deserves to have as big an impact as possible”said David Borenstein.