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Immediately after Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, Karabash Elementary School, like schools across Russia, was ordered to indoctrinate young minds with the so-called “patriotic curriculum.” Pasha Talankin, the school’s cameraman, was assigned to film everything, to prove to the Russian government that the school was toeing the line.

But as much as he loved his students, Talankin hated the war and felt trapped. “I love my job, but I don’t want to be a pawn of the regime,” he said.

Talankin also hated the way his colleagues were forced to parrot state propaganda, such as referring to Russia’s “special operation” in Ukraine as “denazification.” So he decided to record all – not just for the government, but to show the world.

His work became the basis of the documentary “Mr. Nobody Against Putin.” Talankin and the documentary’s American co-director, David Borenstein, spoke to “Sunday Morning” in our London office ahead of this weekend’s Academy Awards, where their film is nominated for an Oscar.

“When the teacher had to say that Ukraine had gone down the path of neo-Nazism and neo-fascism and that we should ‘liberate’ it, at that moment I realized that I had no moral right to remove this material,” Talankin said, “because it is part of the evidence of what is happening in Russian schools today.”

Borenstein said, “I don’t think Pasha even knew, none of us knew, that this movie would amount to anything when we were making it.”

The two met online and agreed to make a movie. So, for two years, Talankin continued filming, while Borenstein directed remotely from Europe. He recorded everything: pro-war student assemblies; Putin’s Wagner paramilitary group appears to provide weapons training; and the day when some of his students were recruited to fight in Ukraine.

“When Pasha picked up the camera, it was because he felt trapped in this Kafkaesque system,” Borenstein said. “He says it in the movie: ‘Being a propagandist in this school is like walking a tightrope.'”

There was a lot at stake. Talankin could have faced life in prison if he had been caught, especially since he continued to attract attention with small acts of rebellion, such as playing “The Star-Spangled Banner” instead of the Russian anthem on the school’s public address system.

When asked if he ever thought the Russian authorities were after him, Talankin replied: “Sometimes I thought so. In Russia you never know. No one will call you; no one will knock on your door. They just look and suddenly they break down the door, throw you to the floor, and the floor is the last thing you see in your apartment. That’s it; you don’t exist anymore.”

In the West, “Mr. Nobody against Putin” is a triumph. More recently it won the award for best documentary at the BAFTAs (the British Oscar). But in Russia, the Kremlin says it has simply been too busy to watch.

Talankin’s mother, however, a cranky librarian who appears in the film, has managed to see him. “Well, we didn’t talk about it directly,” Talankin said when asked about his reaction. “But she gave an interview to the New York Times and said she liked the movie and is proud of it.”

However, over time the whole charade became too risky. Talankin booked a fake holiday in Türkiye and escaped. Now in exile, he is a very public, sometimes vengeful, critic of the Russian state. When asked how safe he feels, he replied: “Probably 80 percent safe.”

Talankin cries for the children he cares so much about and whose future, he fears, has been poisoned by Putin’s nationalist lies. Of the film he says: “This is a very important document, because it shows what Russian society will be like in a few years. Putin may no longer exist, but society will be bad, because propaganda entered schools and was taught to children.”

This film focuses on the children, but also reveals a lot about the cameraman. Borenstein said: “For me it’s also a story about resistance. Everyone faces a moral choice wherever they are, and this is also a story about what you do when there’s a government around you that tears down everything you’ve built.”

When the time came, Pasha Talankin made his moral choice, resist. He is no longer “Mr. Nobody.”

To see a preview of “Mr. Nobody Against Putin.” Click on the video player below:

For more information:

• “Mr. Nobody Against Putin”, released by Kino Lorber, is now in theaters and available via streaming

Story produced by Leigh Kiniry. Editor: Brian Robbins.

See also:

• In Finland, classes to recognize fake news and misinformation (“Sunday Morning”)
• Putin’s propaganda war against his own people (“Sunday Morning”)
• The social media war between Ukraine and Russia (“Sunday Morning”)
• The role of the media in the era of Trump (“Sunday Morning”)