Vladimir Putin announces on television: “commanders don’t win wars, teachers win wars”. These words serve as a brutal testimony of the importance of Pavel Talankin’s and David Borenstein’s courageous documentary, which investigates the militarisation of Russian schools. Combining observation and personal reflexion, their doc chronicles at close range the state-enforced transformation of a public school in the Ural Mountains into a military propaganda mill. While Borenstein assembled and streamlined the material, major credit must go to Pavel “Pasha” Talankin. The young teacher started on his own filming the cooption of his school, back in 2022.
As the school’s assigned event coordinator and videographer, Pasha had exclusive access to school areas and also extensive archive material to hand. Unaware of his intentions, the government tasked him to film lessons imbued with idelogy, and military displays in order to prove that the school complied with new state requirements. Pasha started to document his concerns in a video diary. His handheld camera takes the audience right in the heart of the events, in Karabash. The remote mining town earned the dubious accolade of the most toxic town on earth. A tight-knit community resides among the copper plants and thedilapidated Soviet structures.
Talankin’s dark humour is strangely affecting. The young man creates moments of joy for his students, and he encourages free thinking. He loves this ugly town, his job and his country. As he puts it: “Loving you country means saying: we have a problem”. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine brought these issues into the classrooms. Soon the students had to recite patriotic poems and wave Russian flags, while their teachers had to follow a brand new syllabus. The material paints Ukraine as an evil aggressor, while warning Russians of enemy infiltration. Television clips and YouTube videos illustrate the country’s nationalist fever.
Instead of ball games, the kids train to throw hand granaries and have marching practice between classes. Talankin proves a sharp observer and captures some remarkable moments. Close-ups of primary school kids with assault rifles show the perversion of military pedagogy. As more young men get drafted into the army, Pasha’s anti-war stance makes his colleagues increasingly uneasy. His unpretentious empathy, his charming nerdiness and his honest concern make him very approachable. As he decides to publish his material, it becomes increasingly c;ear he’ll have to leave Russia.
This defiant chronicle is a rare and objective perspective from the other side of Russia’s invasion. It’s an essential account about the machinations of state propaganda. This meditation on individual responsibility within the community and the political apparatus is both personal and universal. Commanders don’t win wars. Teachers win wars: Pasha’s camera and ethical conviction lend Putin’s words credence. Just not the message of liberation the Russian president would hope!
Mr. Nobody Against Putin premiered at CPH:DOX, when this piece was originally written. Also showing at the 29th Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival. Available in October on BBC iPlayer.
