Alžběta Karásková

Mr Nobody Against Putin was shot over a period of two years by Pavel "Pasha" Talankin, the videographer and events coordinator at Karabash Primary School #1 in Chelyabinsk Oblast. Talankin began seriously documenting his activities after the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, when the government began requiring schools to hold regular "patriotic displays" and use state-written curriculum (such as Conversations about Important Things) to justify the invasion to students. At the same time, the government instituted a requirement to upload footage of these displays to a state-run portal to prove compliance, allowing Talankin cover to film meetings, lessons, and visitors to the school without attracting suspicion. He initially planned to resign in order to avoid supporting the Russian government; however, after getting in contact with director David Borenstein, he withdrew his resignation to keep gathering footage.

On one occasion, mercenaries from the Wagner Group arrive at the school to give a lecture; on another, Talankin disrupts the flag-raising ceremony by playing the US national anthem "The Star-Spangled Banner" performed by Lady Gaga instead of the Russian anthem. In parallel, the people surrounding Talankin are revealed — his mother, who works as a librarian at the same school; Pavel Abdulmanov, a pro-Putin history teacher; a student named Masha, whose brother fights and later dies in the war; and former students who are drafted into the army.

Talankin secretly fled Russia during the summer of 2024, aided by his producers and Borenstein who worked to get him asylum in Europe, following evidence of police surveillance at his home, which appears in the film.