Mr. Nobody Against Putin

Pavel Talankin

Pavel Talankin and David Borenstein's Mr. Nobody Against Putin is a remarkably brave and revealing documentary. Mr. Talankin worked as an event coordinator and videographer at a large school in the Russian town of Karabash. Karabash is a burg of 10,000 nestled in the Ural Mountains and dominated by an enormous copper smelting plant. Talankin recognizes the limitations of his hometown, but displays an undying affection for its humble landmarks and inhabitants. His aged mother also works at his school as a much put upon librarian. The film chronicles two years in the life of Pavel and his students beginning with the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Not only do we witness the inhabitants of Karabash reacting to the conflict, but we see how the Russian government shapes the propaganda fed into the minds of its students. Not only must teachers recite state approved scripts extolling the war, but Talankin has to record this being done and then relay the recordings to the central authorities. He feels that he has become a cog in Putin's war machine and becomes increasingly uneasy. As the war progresses, the school becomes increasingly militaristic, a proving ground for future cannon fodder. Talankin was lucky enough to receive assistance from a Western producer and fled Russia in 2024 along with his film. One cannot forget those left behind, including his mother, who are caught in the maw of a rough and heinous beast. 

Yet, Talankin does not demean those who support the war. He lets them speak for themselves. In particular, a party toady on the faculty who is rewarded by Moscow for his loyalty. When Talankin asks the man who his heroes are, the man cites the most violent and vile of Stalin's henchmen. Talankin's own mother takes an extremely fatalistic view of the situation. Men fight wars she says resignedly and who can refute her. Mr. Nobody Against Putin is as an expert portrait of a totalitarian nation at war and the manifold complexities of its populace. It is a must see. Just this March, the Russian Ministry of Justice named Talankin a foreign agent. This designation of Talankin as a traitor is a capital crime that carries with it a sentence of death.                        

It Was Just An Accident

Vahid Mobasseri

I think it is difficult for me to be objective about the films of Jafar Panahi because of the high esteem I have for him as a beacon of light and sanity in today's world. Regardless, I recommend his latest, It Was Just An Accident, with some very minor reservations. Most of Panahi's ten or so superb pictures have been shot surreptitiously and It Was Just An Accident was no exception. Panahi has run afoul of Iran's ruling mullahs numerous times and is currently appealing a one year sentence for engaging in propaganda activities against the state. He has experienced torture and this informs his latest picture. The film's protagonist, Vahid (Vahid Mobasseri), is an auto mechanic who is gifted by fate to have the opportunity to turn the tables on a hated tormentor from his past named named Eghbai.

Eghbai is the first character we meet in the film, tersely driving through the night with his pregnant wife. Panahi shoots this with a fixed two shot, capturing the subtle interplay between the couple. We are pleasantly surprised when the couple's young daughter pops into the screen from the back seat. Unfortunately, this brief idyll is interrupted by their auto colliding with a wild dog. After subsequently encountering jarring potholes, their vehicle becomes no longer operable. Eghbai, who wears a prosthetic leg, encounters Vahid and prevails upon him to help him find a garage and shelter. Vahid tails Eghbai who we eventually learn was a notorious torturer known to his victims variously as Peg-Leg and Mr. Gimp. When his guard is down, Eghbai is knocked unconscious by Vahid who drives to the desert where he plans to bury Eghbai alive. However, Eghbai plants seeds of doubt in Vahid's mind and he resolves to find other victims to confirm that he has the right man.

This first section, an impressive display of pure cinema with little dialogue, shows how an economy of means necessitated by filming in secret can work to a film's advantage. There are no crane shops or circle dollies to distract us from Vahid's eyes. We are getting to know the man and his dilemma that will inform the rest of the film. As the film develops it becomes more polyphonic in scope for good and bad. The past victims of Peg-Leg join Vahid in his van as they debate whether he is the actual perpetrator and what price justice demands. As the bare-headed modern photographer named Shiva, Mariam Afshari fleshes out an under written role. Mohamad Ali Elyasmehr provides needed comic relief as the volatile Hamid. However, a bride and groom are just along for the ride, stock characters of no import or impact. The debates between the passenger about the fitting fate for Eghbai sound like Panahi on his soapbox rather than conversations. The film regards the quagmire of revenge and I support his hope for a stop to the endless cycles of violence in the Mid-East. However, Panahi puts this message across too baldly.

Mariam Afshari

Along its way, It Was Just An Accident becomes something of a dark road comedy. There is a plot twist designed to highlight the basic humanity of the characters. Snore. Panahi invokes Waiting for Godot, but his film is more like Little Miss Sunshine. The flick becomes cutesy at times, but, ultimately, the overall effect is jarring; purposely so I believe. The film is discordant, a tough tone to maintain in an entertainment. It does fit in tackling a weighty theme which questions wherein lies the seat of evil. It Was Just An Accident is a picture that will linger uneasily in one's mind and I mean that to be a compliment.

Sunlight

Shenoah Allen and Nina Conti

Nina Conti's Sunlight is the best sleeper comedy I've seen since Hundreds of Beavers. Produced for peanuts and filmed along the back roads of New Mexico, the film is an affable road movie and comedy oddity. The closest parallel is Albert Brooks' Lost in America, in which a couple also drive a Winnebago across the American West, but Sunlight is raunchier than the earlier film and more desperate. Conti is British and works primarily in the UK as a ventriloquist. Now I usually find ventriloquism as funny as a crutch, but Conti overcame my prejudice. Her routines, usually involving audience interaction, can be found on YouTube. She wrote the film with Shenoah Allen, her frequent collaborator, who co-stars.

Conti has her couple meet cute with Jane (Ms. Conti) thwarting a suicide attempt by Roy (Mr. Allen). Both are in dire straits emotionally and financially. The film's motivation for their road trip is a watch, worth $20K, buried with Roy's hated father. Roy agrees to split the proceeds with the equally strapped Jane if she will accompany him and assist him on his perverse pilgrimage. The twist is that Jane remains in a monkey costume for nearly the entire film. The reason why is partially explained by her back story, but the real reason is that this is Ms. Conti's schtick. The monkey functions, as all ventriloquists dummy's do, as a raging id, venting the comedian self-rage through a device that does not betray vulnerability. This could grow tiresome, but Ms. Conti had the sense to limit her rants and provide the distancing effect of an absurd accent. There are enough hijinks to lift this slight feature until the inevitable romantic clinch and trip to the clink.

The film is not merely a two hander. Both Bill Wise (as Jane's sleazy stepdad) and Melissa Chambers (as Roy's mom) create indelible characters that help flesh out the leads' back story. Both provide wonderful screwball moments without being too cartoonish in their characterizations. Sunlight is modest in its scope, but exact in its portrait of a very human comedy. It is currently streaming on Tubi.