Documentary About Russia: A Society Slipping Toward Totalitarianism

The pernicious aspect of the oppression system of an authoritarian state is not necessarily what happens, but what could happen at any moment. The state of permanent fear and uncertainty is the decisive control principle, not the ultimate execution. When the Russian government in 2021 began classifying not only organizations but also individuals as foreign agents, it did not start with the most well-known opposition figures, but with an arbitrary list that had no logic. The message was clear: it can affect anyone at any time.

The law in question has existed since 2012, but was applied only to a few NGOs. It was only from the summer of 2021 that independent media and journalists joined. Mostly on Friday evenings, the new names were published. Once on the list, not only must all personal expenses be reported to the state. In addition, any public statements must be accompanied by a statement indicating that one is acting as a foreign agent. This applies not only to journalistic publications but also to banal posts on Instagram or Facebook.

For American director Julia Loktev, born in the then Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) and who immigrated to the United States at the age of nine, this was the starting point of her documentary “My Undesirable Friends: Part I – Last Air in Moscow,” as she herself explains: “What really captivated me about this story was a society that began to force people to label themselves as different, as ‘not one of us’ — it was hard not to think of an obvious historical precedent.”

What has emerged is a raw, immediate and monumental time document with a running time of almost six hours, which shows a society sliding toward totalitarianism. Loktev’s film takes place in the final weeks and months when there existed something like an independent civil society before Russia began its full invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022. All protagonists (the film follows only women) fled the country within a week of the start of the war. Since then, more than one million people have left Russia.

Her Entire Life Under Putin

Among them are also the staff of the independent television channel Rain TV, which now operates from Amsterdam. Through host Anna Nemzer, who is also named as a co-director of the film, Loktev gains access to a network of independent journalists. She is less interested in their specific work than in their daily lives.

Most of her protagonists belong to Gen Z and have spent almost their entire lives under Putin. They exchange thoughts about their guilty pleasure, the Netflix series ‘Emily in Paris’; they mock Putin as Lord Voldemort and simply want to be part of the (Western) world. Some of them have already been designated as foreign agents. The fear of being arrested like other colleagues is ubiquitous.

Loktev, who recently directed the drama “The Loneliest Planet” (2011) with Gael García Bernal, completely refrains from interviews or archival material. She is simply the camera that is always there. She used exclusively an iPhone. A pragmatic as well as clever decision, since it allows an intimacy that would hardly have been possible with a professional camera (including a film crew).

It is astonishing how much humor and steadfastness the women bring to facing their fears and the state repression. Together they celebrate New Year’s Eve and toast to a new year without Putin. In one scene, they ask Loktev whether she is aware that she is standing in a room that is very likely bugged.

Produced, Filmed, and Edited Single-Handedly

In another moment, they joke about which underwear one should wear best when the police arrive early in the morning. It should not be too provocative, but also not give a shabby impression. In the end, when journalist Ira Dolinina flees the country with colleagues, she jokes in the car that she packed summer clothes for February. After all, she has no more hope.

At the same time, these young women carry a commendable amount of responsibility and also shame within themselves. Notably, the 26-year-old investigative journalist Alesya Marokhovskaya. When, on February 24, what happened, which everyone had hoped would not occur the evening before, happens, she looks at herself: “Probably it’s all of our fault. We have lived with it for twenty years, and what we did was not enough to prevent it.”

Julia Loktev produced, filmed and edited her film almost single-handedly. She has created a gripping and harrowing work that shows those people who risked their freedom to make life in this grim country a little more bearable. In the course of this year, the second part is expected to appear. The title is “My Undesirable Friends: Part II – Exile”.

Meanwhile, all the journalists live scattered across Europe and the United States and continue to try to report on the situation in Russia and the war. And that may be the most comforting aspect of the tragedy of their story: they can wake up in the morning and simply pursue their work without fearing for their lives.