Nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.

INDOCTRINATION IS A FULL-TIME JOB.

Pasha Talankin is a primary school teacher in a remote industrial town near the Ural Mountains. Beloved by his students as a mentor and prankster, he is suddenly tasked by the state to serve as the school’s videographer—capturing the "patriotic" transformation of his classroom after the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Directed by David Borenstein and co-directed by Talankin himself, this visceral, "secretly-shot" documentary follows Pasha as he decides to hijack the propaganda machine. By filming the very indoctrination he was supposed to promote—military drills for children, pro-war assemblies, and the recruitment of his own students—he creates a heart-stopping roadmap of a generation being groomed for war. It is a joyful, terrifying, and ultimately heroic portrait of a "nobody" who chose to become a witness before escaping into exile with the footage that would change his life forever.

Winner of the World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival and a BAFTA.

Languages: Russian with English subtitles