{"id":481646,"date":"2026-03-18T05:31:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T05:31:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/481646\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T05:31:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T05:31:15","slug":"oscar-winning-mr-nobody-given-cold-shoulder-by-moscow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/481646\/","title":{"rendered":"Oscar-winning Mr Nobody given cold shoulder by Moscow"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kremlin propaganda is usually swift to hail Russian victories, from sporting achievements to progress on the battlefield in Ukraine. However, it was noticeably quiet about a film by a Russian director that won the Oscar for best documentary feature at this weekend\u2019s ceremony in Hollywood. <\/p>\n

Mr Nobody Against Putin, which was secretly filmed by Pavel Talankin, a former school videographer in Russia\u2019s Chelyabinsk region, depicted the indoctrination of children after the start of Moscow\u2019s full-scale war in Ukraine in 2022. <\/p>\n

The film showed how children at School No 1 in Karabash, an industrial town, were lied to by teachers who told them that Ukraine is a Nazi state, visited by members of the Wagner mercenary group and even taught how to throw grenades. Talankin left Russia in 2024 with the footage for the documentary and now lives in the Czech Republic. <\/p>\n

\u2022 Smuggled film exposing Putin\u2019s classroom brainwashing up for Oscar<\/a><\/p>\n

In their round-up of the Oscar winners, Interfax, Tass and Ria Novosti, the Russian state news agencies, listed 23 out of the 24 awards, but made no mention of Mr Nobody Against Putin. State television also ignored the film\u2019s success. <\/p>\n

In his Oscar acceptance speech, Talankin called for an end to all wars. \u201cIn the name of our future, in the name of all of our children, stop all of these wars now,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\"Illustration<\/p>\n

Mr Nobody against Putin was secretly filmed by Pavel Talankin, pictured here sawing off President Putin\u2019s nose<\/p>\n

ALAMY<\/p>\n

Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, declined to comment on the film\u2019s Oscar award, saying: \u201cYou need to at least understand what it\u2019s about before commenting, so I\u2019ll refrain from making any remarks for now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2022 Meet \u2018Mr Nobody\u2019, the teacher who took on Russian indoctrination<\/a><\/p>\n

Talankin was previously branded a \u201cJudas\u201d by pro-Kremlin media over the film, while the decision to show scenes involving children without the permission of their parents was also criticised. Nikita Mikhalkov, a Russian director who won an Oscar in 1994 for Burnt by The Sun, a feature film about Stalin\u2019s purges, called Talankin \u201ca traitor\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"Pavel<\/p>\n

The film follows the rising militarisation of children in Russian schools<\/p>\n

MADMAN FILMS\/COURTESY EVERETT COLLECTION\/ALAMY<\/p>\n

\"Pavel<\/p>\n

Talankin was a school videographer in Russia<\/p>\n

MADMAN FILMS\/COURTESY EVERETT COLLECTION<\/p>\n

The Oscar award for Mr Nobody Against Putin was also criticised by some Ukrainians, who questioned the decision to honour a Russian filmmaker, despite Talankin\u2019s clear opposition to the war.<\/p>\n

Russian state media reported that Sean Penn, who won best supporting actor for his role in One Battle After Another<\/a>, failed to attend the Oscars ceremony, but made no mention of the fact that his absence was because he was visiting Ukraine. <\/p>\n

Penn met President Zelensky on Sunday in Kyiv. His trip had been kept a secret until his arrival by train in the Ukrainian capital. <\/p>\n

\u201cNow we can say it officially: Sean Penn chose Ukraine over the Oscars!\u201d Ukraine\u2019s state railway operator wrote. Penn has made several trips to Ukraine since the start of Russia\u2019s invasion in 2022. \u201cSean, thanks to you, we know what a \u2060true friend of Ukraine is,\u201d Zelensky said.<\/p>\n

\"Pavel<\/p>\n

JORDAN STRAUSS\/INVISION\/AP<\/p>\n

Mr Nobody Against Putin was not the first Oscar-winning documentary to have been ignored by Russia. In 2023 state media failed to report that the film Navalny, about the opposition politician who later died in an Arctic prison, was awarded an Oscar, and in 2024 it made no mention of the success of 20 Days In Mariupol,<\/a> the documentary that showed Russia\u2019s attack on the Ukrainian port city.<\/p>\n

Although Moscow once funded films that were critical of Russia under Putin, it withdrew support in 2014 after the release of Leviathan, an internationally acclaimed film about one man\u2019s battle against corrupt officials, directed by Andrey Zvyagintsev. <\/p>\n

Vladimir Medinsky, who was the culture minister at the time, said Moscow would no longer fund \u201cRussia is shitty\u201d films, after Leviathan. Medinsky is a top negotiator in talks with Kyiv over the war in Ukraine. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kremlin propaganda is usually swift to hail Russian victories, from sporting achievements to progress on the battlefield in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":481647,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[96,2839,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-481646","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-movies","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481646","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=481646"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481646\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/481647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=481646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=481646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=481646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}