MR NOBODY AGAINST PUTIN
Pavel Talankin is a popular teacher and his school’s videographer in an industrial Russian town. After the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, his filmmaking duties are extended to ensure the school enacts Putin’s new “patriotic education policy” and the teenagers start military training. Putting his own life at risk, Talankin uses his camera to reveal the growing grip of propaganda on the pupils at the school.
POST FILM DISCUSSION
Chair: Martin Fletcher is a former foreign and associate editor of The Times, now working as a freelance journalist and author.
Charles Colville worked in BBC current affairs for 27 years, including a period as the Newsnight Moscow Producer. He was series producer on A Year in Ukraine, a six-part series made for ZDF Germany, Ukrainian, Swedish and French TV.
Kate Peters is an award-winning broadcast news producer. After an early career as a newspaper reporter, she joined the BBC’s Moscow bureau in the 1990s. She returned to Russia in 2011 as Bureau Chief with responsibility for news coverage in the countries of the former Soviet Union.
After five years in Delhi as South Asia Bureau Chief, she began a second spell in Moscow in 2019 and led the BBC’s coverage of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Kate was based in Kyiv from January 2022 until she left the BBC in April. The team’s work was recognised with two RTS awards.