Mr. Nobody Against Putin: "what began as a very serious international whistleblowing exercise—and remained that—also... was filled with humor and light"

vHopeful Conversations Podcast · Feb 12, 2026 · 33m

This Hopeful conversation centers on Mr. Nobody Against Putin as both an undercover whistleblower document and an unexpectedly funny, emotionally intimate portrait of Russian primary school teacher–turned–co-director Pavel “Pasha” Talankin, tracing how his state-mandated patriotic videos inside a small-town school become a secret act of resistance and, eventually, an Oscar-, BAFTA-, and PGA–nominated film; the directors dig into the ethical and security risks Pasha faced filming in Putin’s Russia, the long-distance trust and encrypted collaboration they shared, the specifically school-based…