{"id":142792,"date":"2025-08-13T16:14:21","date_gmt":"2025-08-13T16:14:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/142792\/"},"modified":"2025-08-13T16:14:21","modified_gmt":"2025-08-13T16:14:21","slug":"my-undesirable-friends-director-on-authoritarianism-in-russia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/142792\/","title":{"rendered":"‘My Undesirable Friends’ Director on Authoritarianism in Russia"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tFilmmaker Julia Loktev\u2019s voice is the first we hear in her epic new documentary<\/a>. Over a nighttime shot of Moscow, she warns, \u201cThe world you\u2019re about to see no longer exists. None of us knew what was about to happen.\u201d For the next five-and-a-half hours, My Undesirable Friends: Part I \u2014 Last Air in Moscow more than lives up to that ominous opening. Loktev\u2019s film chronicles the Russian government\u2019s systematic crackdown on journalists in late 2021 and early 2022 as Vladimir Putin<\/a> plots his invasion of Ukraine<\/a>. Shooting by herself with just an iPhone, Loktev spent weeks at a time shadowing the young women and men of TV Rain, the country\u2019s last independent news channel. The result is a gripping v\u00e9rit\u00e9 portrait of citizens under siege by a tyrannical leader stripping away their freedoms.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut since its international premiere at last year\u2019s New York Film Festival, My Undesirable Friends (which makes its U.S. theatrical debut in New York City\u2019s Film Forum on Friday) has become much more than a movie about Russia<\/a>. Speaking over Zoom from New York, Loktev (who grew up in Russia before moving to the States when she was nine) is still absorbing her documentary\u2019s wide-reaching political implications \u2014 and how the film is sounding an alarm bell for what\u2019s taking place in America under Trump.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cMy roommates from Iran, friends who grew up under the dictatorship in Argentina, people from China \u2014 they all said, \u2018This is about us,\u2019\u201d Loktev says. \u201c\u2018This is what it feels like to live under an authoritarian regime. We\u2019d never seen anything that shows it so well.\u2019 And now, Americans are going, \u2018Oh, it\u2019s about us.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe 55-year-old filmmaker had not planned on making such a sweeping yet intimate portrait when she first reached out to her friend, TV Rain host Anna Nemzer. The initial spark was an August 2021 New York Times piece about young Russian independent journalists being labeled \u201cforeign agents\u201d by Putin\u2019s regime, which demanded they run a ridiculously long disclaimer before their segments identifying themselves as such. \u201cThe important part was that [the journalists] were fighting back with humor,\u201d Loktev recalls. For example, some of those reporters responded by launching a snarky podcast called Hi, You\u2019re a Foreign Agent. \u201cThat\u2019s when I contacted Anna Nemzer and said, \u2018Let\u2019s do something about this.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n

\n\tStarting in October of that year, Loktev began filming Nemzer and her colleagues, who felt the weight of Putin\u2019s restrictive rule but had no sense that the war on Ukraine was imminent. \u201cThe impending doom was definitely there from the start,\u201d says Loktev, \u201cbut the doom that people expected [was] different than the doom that happened. They thought that what awaited them was an internal crackdown aimed at them. They were all trying to figure out, \u2018How long can we keep working as journalists here?\u2019 They kept saying they love [Russia] more than Putin loves it and they keep trying to fight inside the country.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAlthough Loktev directed the 1998 documentary Moment of Impact, she most recently made the feature films Day Night Day Night (starring Luisa Williams as a suicide bomber) and The Loneliest Planet (with Gael Garc\u00eda Bernal and Hani Furstenberg playing lovers on a fateful backpacking trip). And while My Undesirable Friends is a real-life drama, it unspools like a paranoid thriller, so Loktev approached it with a narrative flair.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cPeople describe it as very different things,\u201d she says, from a horror film to a reality show to a Russian novel to a dark comedy. \u201cI think it\u2019s all of those things. What it\u2019s not is a conventional documentary.\u201d The film eschews dry talking-head interviews from political experts, instead presenting fly-on-the-wall encounters with these independent journalists \u2014 many of them women in their twenties \u2014 as they do their jobs and then blow off steam during their off hours. As Loktev describes it, \u201cThere is a tension that builds, but meanwhile, you\u2019re with these people who are hanging out. They\u2019re quite funny as horrible, horrible things are happening to them.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n\tUnfolding over five chapters \u2014 three set before the Ukraine invasion, two in the midst of it \u2014 My Undesirable Friends details Putin\u2019s chilling effect on Loktev\u2019s subjects, and different individuals become the main character across the movie\u2019s runtime, including journalist Ksenia Mironova, a sweet but dogged reporter whose fianc\u00e9, fellow journalist Ivan Safronov, has been imprisoned. TV Rain covers massive protests in the wake of the 2021 incarceration of anti-Putin activist Alexei Navalny, which seem to suggest a sea change within the country \u2014 only to have the government crush dissent. The movie has the suffocating feel of a hand tightening around a throat as these women keep reporting while simultaneously worrying if they should flee Russia to avoid arrest, their anxiety captured nearly in real time.<\/p>\n

\n\tInevitably, Americans will notice disturbing similarities between Putin and Trump, who has repeatedly threatened the press, challenged democratic norms, and ordered numerous detainments. Loktev, who is nearing completion of a second five-hour documentary that details what became of the exiled journalists, understands why American viewers will watch her film looking for clues to what might happen here. \u201cWe are so hungry for things that help us understand the current moment,\u201d she says. \u201cPart of living under an authoritarian [government]\u00a0is it does make you feel like you\u2019re going crazy \u2014 it doesn\u2019t make sense. [Watching the movie] is a way of understanding, \u2018Everything you\u2019re feeling is normal under these circumstances.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBecause she stayed close to the ground, documenting this pivotal political moment from the perspective of the journalists she followed, My Undesirable Friends is a powerfully emotional experience. And by cataloging everyday life under authoritarianism, she exposes the crushing normalcy that\u2019s never depicted in Hollywood portrayals of dystopian governments.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tOlga Churakova and Sonya Groysman<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJulia Loktev<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201c[TV Rain reporter] Sonya [Groysman] interviews this anthropologist: \u2018It\u2019s a strange feeling because there\u2019s nice cafes everywhere and Moscow looks great and you can get anything delivered. Meanwhile, my friends are being arrested.\u2019 And the anthropologist explains to her that we\u2019re used to seeing films like V for Vendetta, which make it look like, in an authoritarian society, everyone suffers equally and everyone\u2019s miserable,\u201d Loktev says. \u201cBut actually this is what it looks like to live under authoritarianism \u2014 it looks really nice for a lot of people, and there are matcha lattes everywhere. I think about this every day now that I walk out in New York. My neighborhood looks really nice \u2014 meanwhile, there are people in unmarked vans with masks snatching people off the street.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAs frightening as the world around Loktev\u2019s subjects is, what\u2019s remarkable is how full of life they are, the filmmaker emphasizing their youthful energy, dark sense of humor, and endearing obsessions. (A running subplot is Mironova\u2019s love for Harry Potter, culminating in her meeting Draco Malfoy himself, Tom Felton.) But Loktev is quick to correct anyone who perceives My Undesirable Friends as a snapshot of idealists under duress.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cYou can\u2019t really be idealistic in 2021 Russia,\u201d she counters. \u201cNavalny has already been poisoned. There\u2019s been huge crackdowns by the police. People that go to protests get beaten with batons. It\u2019s not idealism, that\u2019s not the right word. It\u2019s a persistence despite the odds.\u201d Loktev points to TV Rain\u2019s 2021 New Year\u2019s Eve broadcast, which plays out during one chapter of My Undesirable Friends. It\u2019s a defiantly celebratory evening, despite the journalists\u2019 fear that they could end up in prison soon. \u201cThe title of the New Year\u2019s show is We\u2019re Not Dispersing. That\u2019s incredibly inspiring because it\u2019s not idealism at all \u2014 it\u2019s a necessity to keep going.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIf My Undesirable Friends were merely a close accounting of Russia\u2019s dismantling of a free society, it would be stunning enough. But by positioning this as a story of a younger generation refusing to cede their liberties to tyrants, Loktev has made a film about resistance, putting a human face on the daily struggles concerned citizens must endure to take back their country. For her, the film\u2019s message can be defined by one incident.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\u201cIt was the closing of Memorial, Russia\u2019s oldest human rights organization, dedicated to preserving the memory of political terror going back to Stalin and also looking at political prisoners today,\u201d Loktev recalls. \u201cRight before New Year\u2019s Eve, Russia shut it down for ridiculous [reasons]. The way that Memorial dealt with being shut down is they had a holiday party that night. And this human rights lawyer stood up and said, \u2018Let joy and laughter also be a part of our resistance.\u2019<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI think [it\u2019s] incredibly important not to become dispirited,\u201d Loktev continues. \u201cThat\u2019s what you see in the film. I always say, for a film about political repression in a very cold place, it\u2019s strangely funny and warm. Life and warmth and laughter is also a form of resistance \u2014 that\u2019s what keeps you from giving up.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Filmmaker Julia Loktev\u2019s voice is the first we hear in her epic new documentary. Over a nighttime shot…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":142793,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[3192,171,53,429,257,273,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-142792","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-documentary","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-movies","11":"tag-putin","12":"tag-russia","13":"tag-ukraine","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115022349308308373","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142792","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142792"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142792\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/142793"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}