My Undesirable Friends: Part I - Last Air in Moscow

A slow, immersive vérité documentary that builds quiet dread as you watch journalists work under escalating repression.

Directed by

Julia Loktev

Genres

Documentary

Starring

Anna Nemzer, Ksenia Mironova, Sofya Groysman

Overview

American filmmaker Julia Loktev, born in the Soviet Union, returned to Moscow in 2021 to make a documentary on the persistence of independent media journalism in Putin’s Russia—just months, as it turned out, before the country’s invasion of Ukraine. Structured in five chapters, Loktev’s film is an extraordinary vérité document of a moment of immense change and anxiety.

How it feels

Tense, dark, melancholic and satirical. Slow-burning and demanding.

About

Politics, media, power, corruption

Content

Mild violence and language. No gore or sexual content.

Note

Written by AI, so it can be wrong. Full breakdown

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Watch the trailer on YouTube (opens in a new tab)