Pavel Talankin
Павел Таланкин
Talankin in 2025
Born March 1990 (age 35–36)
Occupations
  • Teacher
  • documentary filmmaker
  • cinematographer
  • videographer[1][2]
Years active 2022–present[3][4]
Notable work Mr. Nobody Against Putin (2025)[3]
Awards BAFTA Film Award (Documentary) for Mr. Nobody Against Putin[5]

Pavel Talankin (Russian: Павел Таланкин; born March 1990)[6] is a Russian teacher and documentary filmmaker who worked as a teacher-organizer and school videographer at Karabash Primary School No. 1 in Karabash, Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia.[4][7] He is credited as co-director, cinematographer, and narrator of the anti-war opposition documentary feature Mr Nobody Against Putin (2025).[3][8]

Mr. Nobody Against Putin premiered in the World Cinema Documentary program at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival and received the World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award.[3][9] The film won the BAFTA Award for Best Documentary and the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature at the 98th Academy Awards.[5][10] Talankin left Russia in 2024 and has been described in festival biographies as living in Europe.[4][1]

Early life and education

Talankin grew up in Karabash, an industrial town in Chelyabinsk Oblast.[7] He attended Karabash Primary School No. 1 as a child and later returned to work there.[3][11] His mother worked at the same school as a librarian.[7]

Published accounts describe Talankin as working with children since his student years, including at the Orlyonok camp near Lake Uvildy and later in a children’s home and a library in Karabash.[7][4][12][1][3]

Career

At Karabash Primary School No. 1, Talankin organized extracurricular activities and filmed school events such as assemblies and ceremonies as part of his job as the school videographer.[4][7] He taught children practical video production skills, including shooting and editing.[2][13] In public reporting, Talankin’s pre-film community work in Karabash included activities with students connected to media and youth programming, including a 2021 project building a detailed Minecraft model of Karabash with students.[7][14]

Talankin collaborated with filmmaker David Borenstein on Mr. Nobody Against Putin using footage recorded inside his school over a two-year period following Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, and he left Russia in June 2024 carrying recorded material on seven hard drives.[3][4] The Sundance film listing credits Talankin as co-director and cinematographer and identifies the film as a Denmark/Czech Republic production with a 90-minute runtime in Russian.[3] International festival programs in Bulgaria, Serbia, and Hungary scheduled screenings of the film, listing Talankin as co-director and identifying him as a teacher associated with the school where the film was shot.[11][15][13] The film won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature Film at the 2026 Oscars.[16]

Style and themes

Talankin’s credited filmmaking work centers on first-person documentary narration and observational footage recorded within a Russian primary school setting in which he worked officially as a videographer.[3][17] Reviews have described the film’s approach as combining on-the-ground school footage with diary-like narration to depict the integration of ideological messaging into everyday school routines.[17][18]

Reception

Coverage of Talankin in Russian-language reporting has emphasized his former role inside Karabash Primary School No. 1 and the risks associated with removing filmed school material from Russia after the start of the full scale invasion in 2022.[4][7] Reviews in European and North American outlets discussed Talankin’s footage as a rare inside-school record of how war-related messaging and rituals appeared in day-to-day educational life during the period when he was filming.[17][18]

See also

  • List of Russian Academy Award winners and nominees

References

  1. ^ a b c "Pavel Talankin". MDOC – Festival Internacional de Documentário de Melgaço. Retrieved 2026-02-24.
  2. ^ a b "Pavel Talankin". Mountainfilm Festival. Retrieved 2026-02-24.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i "Mr. Nobody Against Putin". Sundance Film Festival (Festival Player). Retrieved 2026-02-24.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g "«Говорят, что я подонок». Учитель из Челябинской области снимал школу во время войны — и показал свой фильм на фестивале «Сандэнс»". Медиазона (in Russian). 2025-01-30. Retrieved 2026-02-24.
  5. ^ a b "Film / Documentary (2026)". BAFTA. Retrieved 2026-02-24.
  6. ^ Razzall, Katie (16 March 2026). "From Mr Nobody to Oscar winner: How one man took on Putin". BBC News. Retrieved 18 March 2026.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g "«С чьих слов я предатель Родины? Со слов Владимира Путина?» Уральский учитель тайно снял документальный фильм о пропаганде в школе". Meduza (in Russian). 2025-01-31. Retrieved 2026-02-24.
  8. ^ "Mr. Nobody Against Putin (2025)". IMDb. Retrieved 2026-02-24.
  9. ^ "2025 Sundance Film Festival Award Winners Announced". Sundance Institute. 2025-01-31. Retrieved 2026-02-24.
  10. ^ "The 98th Academy Awards". Oscars.org. Retrieved 2026-02-24.
  11. ^ a b "MR. NOBODY AGAINST PUTIN". Sofia DocuMENTAL. Retrieved 2026-02-24.
  12. ^ "Pavel Talankin". IMDb. Retrieved 2026-02-24.
  13. ^ a b "Mr. Nobody Against Putin (BIDF listing)". BIDF – Budapesti Nemzetközi Dokumentumfilm Fesztivál (in Hungarian). Retrieved 2026-02-24.
  14. ^ "«Никто от него не ожидал»: учитель тайно снимал школьников в Челябинской области для антироссийского фильма". 74.ru (in Russian). 2025-01-31. Retrieved 2026-02-24.
  15. ^ "Gospodin Niko protiv Putina". Beldocs (in Serbian). Retrieved 2026-02-24.
  16. ^ "'Hollywood story': Russia's Mr Nobody makes history with Oscar win". France 24. Retrieved 2026-03-16.
  17. ^ a b c "Review: Mr. Nobody Against Putin". Cineuropa. Retrieved 2026-02-24.
  18. ^ a b "'Mr Nobody Against Putin': Sundance Review". Screen Daily. 2025-01-30. Retrieved 2026-02-24.