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Yahoo
25-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘My Undesirable Friends: Part I — Last Air in Moscow' Review: Julia Loktev's Piercing Chronicle of Russian Journalists Targeted by Their Own Government
A despotic leader reigning with absolute power. A crackdown on investigative reporters. A government consisting only of ardent loyalists. Federal agents with access to the bank records and personal information of private citizens. Journalists critical of the regime who are harassed, threatened and face possible legal action. What country are we talking about here? More from The Hollywood Reporter Norwegian Queer Love Story 'Dreams' Wins 75th Berlin Film Festival (Full Winners List) Berlin: Chinese Drama 'The Botanist,' Michel Gondry's 'Maya, Give Me a Title' Win Generation Kplus Berlin: Teddy Awards Honor Queer Cinema Newcomers, Pioneers If what happens in Julia Loktev's intimate and incisive 5 ½ hour documentary My Undesirable Friends sounds familiar, you may be surprised to learn that it's not, in fact, about the United States since the start of President Donald Trump's second term, but about Russia back in 2021. It was then that Loktev followed several reporters in the months leading up to the invasion of Ukraine, chronicling the last vestiges of an anti-authoritarian resistance that fled when the war broke out. Highly informative and a bit exhausting, this in-depth look at journalism in a dying democracy warrants our attention — as long as you're willing to give it all 324 minutes of your time. It's especially worth sticking around to the finale to see how bad things can get, and what perhaps lies in store for America one day. The full title of the movie is My Undesirable Friends: Part I — Last Air in Moscow, and it's the first half of a diptych that Loktev began shooting in December 2021. (The other half will premiere later this year.) Divided into five chronological chapters, the doc highlights a handful of investigative journos, all of them women, who were deemed 'foreign agents' under a law designed to crush any opposition against President Vladimir Putin. Forced to comply with punishing regulations and facing the constant threat of arrest, we watch these brave young souls persist in their jobs until the bitter end. They continue writing articles, shooting and editing news segments, and releasing podcasts until the fateful day of February 24, 2022, when Russia invaded Ukraine and their lives changed forever. Loktev, who was born in St. Petersburg and grew up mostly in the U.S., accesses the group via her old friend Anna Nemzer (credited as co-director), a journalist hosting two shows on the independent news channel TV Rain. When the documentary begins, the network still operates freely in Russia but is subject to draconian guidelines, one requiring that a message be broadcast before each program stating that everything is lies spread by foreign agents. Despite all the oppressive measures, Nemzer and the other dedicated reporters continue to work, often in clever and discerning ways that manage to make light of an awful situation. 'It's like a wake, but a fun one,' is how one of them describes the ambience. Nemzer is decidedly more blunt about their predicament: 'Everything happening now is the rape of justice,' she tells Loktev, explaining that sooner or later they will all be forced to 'choose between criminal prosecution and emigration.' Filming their every outspoken thought and conversation whether in the newsroom, at home, on the street or in cars driving around frigid Moscow, the director channels the growing sense of dread as the government crackdown accelerates and the war nears. At times the movie feels so raw and unedited, it's as if Loktev dumped all her footage onto the table without shaping it into a definitive cut. Perhaps a leaner two-hour version would have yielded something more dynamic, though the point of My Undesirable Friends isn't to entertain us, but to capture every detail of a tiny democratic movement that was doomed to fail. Alongside Nemzer, it's worth mentioning the names of the other reporters featured, because in one way or another they're all heroes: Ksenia Mironova, Sonya Groysman, Olga Churakova, Irina Dolinina, Aleysa Marokhovskaya and Elena Kostyuchenko. Each of them struggles with their foreign agent status, hiring lawyers to represent them in kangaroo courts where the verdict has been pre-determined. At times they break down in tears, unable to deal with the constant harassment in their professional and personal lives. Their phones and homes are tapped, they receive threatening calls and texts, cars follow them around town and random accusations put them in jail. And of course they also face assassination, which has already happened to several journalists — as well as to opposition leaders like Boris Nemtsov, for whom they hold a vigil that leads to yet more arrests. While Nemzer is the main character in the doc's early segments, we gradually shift to 'Ksyusha' Mironova in the latter sections. She's a young and fearless TV Rain reporter, as well as the fiancée of journalist Ivan Safronov, who was jailed over a year earlier and is awaiting sentencing. (He will eventually be sentenced to 22 years in prison.) When Russia invades Ukraine, it's clear that Mironova will have to flee along with her friends, leaving behind a loved one she may never get to see again. The doc's engrossing final chapters, entitled 'The Expected Impossible' and 'Don't Say War,' reveal the sense of dread pervading the group as Russian troops amass at the Ukrainian border and war seems inevitable, even if some continue to hold out hope it won't happen. Then one night in February, Nemzer is driving through Moscow and notices fireworks exploding above the Kremlin. She knows all too well what this means: The last time that happened was when Russia invaded Crimea back in 2014. Loktev, who previously directed a pair of subtly powerful indie thrillers, Day Night Day Night (2006) and The Loneliest Planet (2011), delivers a slow and sweeping real-world thriller whose aftershocks are still being felt today. Her insider's look at totalitarian Russia bears, at times, an unsettling resemblance to what we're now seeing emerge from the new administration of Trump, who has never hidden his admiration for despots like Putin — nor his hatred of journalists daring to criticize him. Yet despite the sense that things will get worse, the women at the heart of My Undesirable Friends offer us a case study in resilience. Putting their own lives at risk, they combat the regime with intelligence, humor and lots of foul-mouthed Russian slang, until they're forced to pack their bags and bring the fight elsewhere. Their lucid, world-weary attitude is perhaps best summed up by a reporter's remark at one of the gang's many drunken gatherings before the fall: 'We've read books. We know what comes next.' Best of The Hollywood Reporter The Best Anti-Fascist Films of All Time Dinosaurs, Zombies and More 'Wicked': The Most Anticipated Movies of 2025 From 'A Complete Unknown' to 'Selena' to 'Ray': 33 Notable Music Biopics
Yahoo
22-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘My Undesirable Friends: Part I — Last Air in Moscow' Review: An Intimate Documentary Epic About Journalists at War
At nearly five-and-a-half hours — further divided into five massive chapters — Julia Loktev's 'My Undesirable Friends: Part I — Last Air in Moscow' is less like typical docu-journalism, and more akin to Tolstoy's 'War and Peace.' The first volume in a two-part series about independent reporters, it lays out its twists and turns early on: At some point during its runtime, Russia will launch a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Capturing this war and its consequences was never Loktev's intent, but the film's evolution (both as a narrative, and as a DIY production) is a vital part of its text. What began as a piece about Loktev's friends and colleagues being branded 'foreign agents' by the Russian state evolves in real time. It's even forced to switch protagonists at one point, owing the mounting logistical challenges caused by the ongoing conflict. While Loktev intended to work with a professional cinematographer, she would end up shooting much of the movie up close on her outdated iPhone X, yielding stark, realistic hues and a surprising intimacy seldom seen in political documentaries. More from Variety 'What Does That Nature Say to You' Review: Hong Sangsoo Takes a Blurry Lens to Early Adulthood 'The Message' Review: An Uneventful Drama About a Young Pet Medium 'Tiger's Pond' Review: A Restrained Indian Political Drama Set on the Edge of Spirituality One question will no doubt be on most viewers' minds: Can a doc like this sustain one's interest for 324 minutes, even with an intermission? The answer is a resounding 'Yes, and then some,' owing to the lengthy, casual foundation the film lays during its first three chapters (each running about an hour, give or take) using conversation snippets, news footage and even its subjects' typed reports appearing as on-screen text. The Soviet-born American Loktev is a relative outsider, but her window (and ours) into the Moscow journalism scene is Ann Nemzer, a conscientious mother trying to do the right thing in the face of Russia's oppressive regime, and Loktev's co-director on the project. Nemzer works for the independent journalistic outlet TV Rain, where the talk show 'Who's Got The Power?' focuses on activists seeking to make positive changes in Russian politics. However, new laws have forced channels like Rain (and each of their journalists) to declare themselves 'foreign agents' in lengthy disclaimers, which the film's subjects hilariously repurpose. To watch 'My Undesirable Friends: Part I' is to live alongside its characters, and to quickly grow accustomed to not only their newsroom hustle and bustle, but their colloquialisms and pop culture touchstones. Whether or not you come away from the film speaking fluent Russian, there's a non-zero chance you'll be tempted to pronounce 'Harry Potter' the Russian way ('Garry Potter'), given how frequently the fantasy series is used as a point of comparison for Russia's fascist backslide. Drawing these connections may be passé and outdated to some, but here, they fuel the movie's conversational momentum, leaving as quickly as they arrive in order to make room for relevant details about the who's who (and why) of Russian power, as the movie's on-screen text emphasizes a countdown to things going belly-up, made all the more ominous by the subtle death knolls of Sami Buccella's scant but haunting score. Loktev, who edited the film alongside Michael Taylor, knows silence is a vital dramatic commodity, so she uses it judiciously. However, the constant chatter somehow never grows repetitive, whether it involves journalists casually discussing their families and secret same-sex partners, or engaging in conversations about the mechanics they're sure to face should they step even a toe out of line. Perhaps it's because Loktev is presented with a vast ensemble from which to choose, but just as likely a reason is the basic reality in which these people live, one where new norms are shattered each day, and 'normality' involves balancing the jovial, the banal and the dire all at once, over dinner and drinks. These dimensions are detailed and endearing, ensuring each new exposition dump is imbued with dynamic, multifaceted humanity. A second film, titled 'My Undesirable Friends: Part II — Exile' has already been shot, and is due later this year. In the meantime, 'Part I' is as much about shifting political sands as it is the confluence of journalism and community in the face of mounting legal hurdles and encroaching authoritarianism. All these facets are forced into violent collision when the February 2022 invasion rolls around, turning the subjects' lives (and in the process, the documentary itself) upside down. Three hours in, its focus is forced to shift to a novice journalist, Ksenia Mironova (though it retains most of its original supporting 'cast'), whose partner is a prisoner of the state, and who's soon faced with the reality of having to leave Russia once Putin's hammer comes down on anyone reporting on the war. The journalists' camaraderie takes center stage in the film's second half, which builds to stunning climactic moments of the 'I can't quite believe this was captured on camera' variety. Loktev's immersion in the action provides a pulse-pounding quality when things come crumbling down, resulting in an intimate, enormous, urgent political portrait of speaking truth to power, and speaking it together. Best of Variety The Best Albums of the Decade
