Venice: ‘My Undesirable Friends’ Director on Epic Documentary About Death of Press Freedom in Russia, How Putin’s Crackdown Is Warning for U.S. — SkimNews
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- Julia Loktev premiered her documentary sequel "My Undesirable Friends: Part 2 — Exile" out of competition in the Venice Open strand of the Venice Film Festival, the bookend to her Oscar-shortlisted "Part 1 — Last Air in Moscow"
- The film spans nearly 12 hours across 10 chapters — a scope Loktev called unexpectedly "Tolstoyan," as she originally set out to chronicle only journalists Russia had labeled "foreign agents"
- Part 2 picks up just two days after Part 1, following journalists from TV Rain — the independent station branded an "undesirable organization" by the Kremlin — as they fled to Istanbul, Amsterdam, Prague, and New York
- TV Rain journalists appear at their most unguarded on Loktev's iPhone X footage, in what she described as a "strange nomadic existence" capturing "moments of fear, vulnerability and, above all, courage"
- Loktev began filming "deep in the Biden era" and described the second Trump administration as "very far away," though Variety's writer noted that American audiences will likely see parallels to their own political climate
- One of Loktev's subjects shares a message to her younger self in the film: "Stay alarmed, be hysterical if you need to, and know that it's very easy to lose your country"
Why it matters: Across nearly 12 hours and 10 chapters, the film documents the real-time flight of TV Rain journalists from Russia to cities across Europe and the U.S. Paired with its Oscar-shortlisted Part 1, the Venice premiere positions Loktev's project as a multi-year record of a country's independent press being forced underground and into exile.
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