In an exclusive interview, Paval Talankin, winner of the 2026 Best Documentary Oscar, tells Euronews about live outside his Russian homeland and the "discarded" generation for whom he made 'Mr Nobody Against Putin'.
From a lost town in the Southern Urals with a population of 10,000 to the forefront of world documentary cinema - this is the path our guest has travelled in four years.
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Since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and the introduction of compulsory "Lessons on the Important" in schools, its propaganda and dogmatic support, the life of a teacher-organiser and school videographer has changed dramatically. But it was this that became the impetus for the documentary that made him famous.
Pavel Talankin, winner of the Sundance Independent Film Festival's Special Prize and the British and American Academy Awards for Best Documentary. Pavel, welcome to Euronews!
On the night of 16 March, at the 98th Oscars ceremony in Los Angeles, you were awarded the coveted golden statuette for your film Mr Nobody vs Putin, co-written with David Borenstein. 10 days later, the Central District Court of Chelyabinsk banned the distribution of your film in Russia; 11 days later, the Ministry of Justice included you in the "register of foreign agents". What was your reaction?
Pavel Talankin: The film came out in January 2025, and they thought about this issue for a very long time. It took them a whole year to put me on the list of foreign agents and to ban the film. And, you know, I don't have any emotions - it's a super cool advert! I don't know, horror, why they dragged this issue out for so long. I've even had students write to me saying, "Congratulations! But why did it take so long?" But it's super cool publicity, thanks to all the organisers who are pushing these beliefs. A huge thank you! Thanks to you, this film is being seen in Russia too.
One of the Russian websites put in the headline "A film about Vladimir Putin has won an Oscar". How do you summarise what your film is about?
PT: (Laughs): Okay. Okay, let it be like that. The main thing is to be watched, the main thing is to be seen. I was very much surprised by a comment on Facebook by a woman (she is in Russia). She found it, she downloaded it. She did her best, then she opened Facebook, switched on VPN and wrote: "I didn't understand who it was for". So it's like, "Hello, hello!" So you found it, you downloaded it, you watched it, you turned on the VPN, you went to Facebook to write about this film. And you write, "I don't know who it's for." It's for you! It's for you and you did all that! You know? That's what this film is all about.
Instagrammers and youtubers who have seen your film call it "too simple", while film critics see its strength in this: how political reality turns a schoolteacher into an underground documentary filmmaker, almost against his will....
I really like everything that is being said about this film. Positive comments, negative comments, I really like everything. Because I, as the author of all this, I would resent a neutral, yes, neutral attitude. That's its weakness - in its simplicity, but that's its strength.
In your film children are taught to shoot, mercenaries from PMC "Wagner" show them grenades and other mines during lessons. Your heroes have no choice but to go to war under contract. Is a new "lost generation" being born in Russia?
Thrown away. Not a new lost generation, but a generation of the discarded, I would call it that. Thrown out by society, thrown out by the state. They have been thrown out of normal life.
Where to? What awaits them? We don't see it, except for the cross on the grave of your heroine's brother?
That's where they are thrown, unfortunately...
What happened to your heroes? Do you manage to keep in touch with them, with their families?
We are in touch with everyone, absolutely everyone. It is very important for me.
And what news do you get?
Different, absolutely different: both positive and negative. The guys write to me about everything, both those who have graduated and those who are still at school.
Some critics have noted that the film portrays 'Putinism' as if it were imposed from above, forgetting the generally widespread support of "ordinary Russians" for both Putin himself and the invasion of Ukraine. Do you think these reproaches are fair?
No... A film is first of all a fixation, a fixation of what is happening. On the basis of this fixation you can draw conclusions, on the basis of this fixation you can make diagnoses. In every country these diagnoses are different, in every society these diagnoses are absolutely different. You can draw your own conclusions.
In the summer it will be two years since you left Russia. To follow your vocation as a documentary filmmaker and a person who intends to live according to his convictions meant, in your case, exile. What is it like to live in exile?
I don't like this word "exile". I don't like this word, replace it with another word.
Away from the homeland?
Far from the motherland, I don't like it either...I was in a park in New York, in Central Park. There they apparently have some kind of tradition of taking tourists on horseback. And it smells like manure. In fact, the park smells really bad. I came to this park and smelled all the aromas, and I remembered that I had to dig a vegetable garden. I remembered that I had to take the manure in a wheelbarrow to fertilise it. You know, it is easy to leave the state, but it is impossible to leave the motherland.... There is a line in Marina Tsvetaeva's poem: "But if there is a bush on the road, especially a rowan tree".... It's about this, it's about this. And it's not just about "Russian - not Russian", it's about everyone. And these are absolutely different concepts. Homeland ≠ state. Somehow at one point people stopped understanding it, and people stopped hearing it....
Your view of Europe and Europeans?
They are totally different people (laughs), cool ! From country to country.
What is their coolness?
Freedom.
Freedom of thought? Freedom of behaviour? Freedom of speech?
Freedom of speech, in everything, in everything absolutely. I live in the Czech Republic now, and I have this rule: don't compare. I try not to compare countries and states. But there are a few criteria that I just pay attention to. The first one is bookshops. There is no one equal to Paris. There is no one. People queue up to go into a bookshop. Imagine that! What is this happening? It's incomprehensible (laughs). The second thing is public transport. There is no equal, so far I have not met, in the Czech Republic. It's not about what time the train comes, what time it leaves; what time the tram comes, what time it leaves. It's not about that. The point is that a woman, a grandmother of some kind, will get on the tram, and she will immediately be given a seat. Automatically, without any reminders. She doesn't have to say anything, she'll know she'll be given a seat. That's so cool! I've been to Moscow, and it doesn't exist there, and it's very sad.
What is your message to Russians who share your position and find themselves, as you said in one of your interviews, in internal exile?
I talk about it both in the film and after the film. But, you know, I'm not a pilot, I'm not a pilot.... When a pilot gets on a plane, he has a list: check this, check that. He just follows the list, the instructions. I don't have this manual, and I don't think anyone has this manual. It is something personal...
Thank you for answering our questions.
Listen, I have a message for you. I want to thank you very much for the hard work that you are doing. It's actually very difficult, I know you are banned in Russia. And we're watching you. I've been watching you, if there's me, then there are still people who have been watching you. And actually, it's very important. You have no idea!
You're heroes and you don't realise how heroic you are. There's no one who's going to come up to you and say, "Oh, you're heroes because you're continuing journalism." And in fact you are heroes. And what you're doing is really important, it's super important. And on behalf of myself, on behalf of the Russians who watch Euronews, I want to say thank you very much! Thank you very much, human.
