“The Master. No one against Putin,” which has its first global presentation on Saturday in the Department of Documentary Competition for Global Cinema at the Sandans Film Festival, a look from within the influence of Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine on the lives of Russian children. diverse He spoke to the director of the movie, David Bournenstein, who worked alongside Pavel “Pasha” Talnkin, the subject of the film and his coach. The trailer appears below.
The emergence of the project came when Pasha, a high school teacher in a regional town in Russia, responded to a request from a web content for people to explain how the “special military operation” in Ukraine, as they call the invasion in Russia, affected their jobs.
“Pasha responded to this with an emotional political mixing, talking about how his job turned upside down, how she turned into propaganda, and how his school, apparently, apparently turned over, to something that he did not recognize explaining Burnstein.
The web content company refused to follow up on the matter, but through the development of the response of the fate of Pasha, it ended in the hands of Burnstein, based in Copenhagen, but worked in China for many years. Pasha, who worked as a video photographer in his school, was able to film him inside the school, where she presented many government measures designated to stir up patriotism to her students.
Burnstein says he was “very difficult to communicate” with Pasha as he started the project where he was his consequences, if discovered, he would be brutally.
“Master. No one against Putin”
With the permission of Pavel Talnkin
“It may have been greater than the eye nerve to communicate that you can have in a cooperative project,” says Burnstein. “We were unable to speak through any means of communication other than the super encrypted line, and at first, we got a security advisor to create some basic rules, and some of these basic rules have been considered whether his phone has been hacked. We cannot be sure From that, even on the encrypted line, we can speak frankly, so we are still talking about the words of the code and indirectly on this encrypted line. .
Among these restrictions, Bournenstein did what he could to direct Pasha as the project advanced, but the Russian teacher was also a worker. “He is this beautiful wild man who cannot be directed when he picks up the camera,” says Burnstein. “Usually it is because he feels very deep feelings, which is his way of dealing with it. He only has to go out, do something and pick up the camera was one of the ways to do so.
“Master. No one against Putin”
With the permission of Pavel Talnkin
“Often he picks up the camera because he really feels passionate, although at other times, because it is just a kind of picking daily life and joke, but for Pasha it was really difficult at first. I thought he might have I could give him some direction, and he can benefit from My experience in directing the viewer. Deep and psychological pressures that can be explored by using the audio comment, and the extent of its filming in that school for years, and people are used to this way. It was really great.
“I was in the editorial room I was watching. It was just a natural and liquid way to enter that school, when looking at the shots for several years, I really revealed the extent of fascism and slow militarization in the school in a way that is difficult to pick up anything else.
“Therefore, for me, the cooperation was about his acceptance of who he was, and loved it, then knowing how I can work with that. It was about saying, this is the cooperation, it is: I am a movie director in Denmark; he is a teacher and video photographer in (a secondary school In the Ural Mountains) we are making a movie together.
A number of topics appear during the movie, but this was not clear because Pasha was filming. “Everything was largely discovered in liberation, because it does not lead in a very focused way. He did not photograph the characters, really. Just.
“So, I find personalities, I look at various topics in advertising. I look at patterns of how the school changes during those years. I look at how the atmosphere turned and how the feelings of students and people around him were turning in the wake of what was happening. It was a slow process And very difficult, because it was not only hundreds of hours of the shots, it was more. “
There are some of the main relationships that were filmed in the movie, the most clear between Pasha and his mother. But there are others – like his relationship with Masha, a girl whose brother explodes to fight in the war, and a young man who was recruited. How did the manager decide to be the main?
“I think the reason for this is that all these characters had some moments that really affected me in the editorial room,” says Burnstein. “Masha is a good example, the girl whose brother is going to fight. She ignored a kind of her footsters for a long time until she reached her tragic end. I saw her footage in the cemetery, and she really moved me, and made me think about the war, and made me think about the pain I felt Pasha, and I thought it was It was important. Then I looked back in this huge archive by years, and after finding these shots, she found, O, and Wow, as she was talking to Pasha directly when her brother was formulated to join the army. reality. “
Bornstein tried not to give a stereotype of the Russians as a threat or unpleasant. Although there is a highly supportive teacher, the rest of them are sympathetic. I took the act of cooperation with Pasha seriously. So, for me, I wanted to ask for this. I was the director. I wrote that, but he was the coach, and I wanted to be his point of view firmly, sincerely and sincerely the way the story was told. This means opening myself to it and trying to understand it really, and understanding the way he sees the school, and the way Russia sees and I think this helped me avoid an excessive white and white perspective of what was going on there, in an attempt to understand the way he sees things.
“I really confirmed that his point of view is clear – his love for the city, his relationship with people, and the way people see there, because he grew up with them. He sees them as people. We have allowed us to make sure that this has allowed us to make a sure movie that it is something that he believes in The majority of the Russians agree with it. So I think what I am proud of in this movie is the fact that the Russians agree with it. I don’t think this is happening here. I think it avoids a black and white representation of the Russian people. This was the goal, exiled to people here, but also being a strong massive invitation to people in Russia, also because his point of view is unique. It is not as if it was liberal from Moscow. He is a teacher. It does not call for revolution. It does not call for democracy or elections. He only looks at the violence that enters these schools and says: “This is a mistake,” and makes this perspective in the forefront and the middle in this movie, as I think, gave us a lot. “
One of the difficult aspects of the film was to deal with approval and privacy issues regarding it after he photographed children’s footage, then it is very difficult, if not impossible, to obtain their approval. In this, he received the support of broadcasting partners in the movie.
“The first thing we did in this project is to conduct a security review and involve the BBC. They participated in the beginning, and they gave us a lot of directives when it comes to informing people and obtaining approval to be in the movie. We decided to tell people about this movie It was clear that a security issue for all those concerned. So, when we did so, we did not. From this, of course, it is to make sure that Pasha is the only one in this movie that stands against the regime. Absolutely on Pasha, who is now outside Russia.
Bournenstein says any attempts by the Russian government to prevent the film from distributing it or showing it so far, but “we will keep our eyes open.” “We are ready for that. It’s a little early, but I have noticed that my website is like all views from Russia. I just wonder what will happen, yes, but let’s see. We are ready for some reaction from Russia.”
The film producer is Helle Faber in Made in Copenhagen. International sales are treated by Dr Sales and Media Cinetic dealing with the rights of the United States.
Among the participating producers of the film Pink, the Danish Film Institute, the Czech Film Fund, the Nordic Film & TV Foundation, Filmfyn, Fri Word, Hermod Lannung’s Foundation, BBC Storyville, Dr, ZDF, ARTE, NRK, SVT, RTS, Dr Sales, VPRO,, UPP and Edithouse Fyn.