MY UNDESIRABLE FRIENDS: PART I — LAST AIR IN MOSCOW
Julia Loktev
USA, 2024, 324 min, in IN RUSSIAN WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES
How do you keep fighting for the truth when your country declares you an outlaw? What begins as an intimate epic about young Russian independent journalists fighting Putin’s regime takes a drastic turn when Russia invades Ukraine and they must choose whether to flee into exile. A front row seat to how authoritarianism works and the lives of those who resist, which becomes more and more relevant both globally and in the U.S. every day.
Press
One of the year’s most towering achievements Alissa Wilkinson, The New York Timesit is BRILLIANT, RIVETING, VITAL, DEVASTATING…
A chilling portrait of how authoritarianism works. It looks eerily familiar right now David Fear, Rolling StoneMust-see Magnum Opus
The Best Doc of the Year Is Like a 5.5 Hour-Long Panic Attack Allison Wilmore, New York MagazineAn invaluable document about what it’s like to be one of the remaining voices of dissent in a country that has finally decided to seize control of the narrative and leave only propaganda remaining
The Russian journalists who risked everything to report the truth Adrian Horton, The GuardianLoktev’s film became a record of Russian independent media’s last gasps under Putin, a time capsule of a world that no longer exists
An Intimate Documentary Epic About Journalists at War Siddhant Adlakha, VarietyPolitical portrait of speaking truth to power, and speaking it together
How close is America to authoritarianism? My Undesirable Friends plays like the coming attractions. Sam Adams, SlateIt’s devastating in its delineation of how brutally a determined and unrestrained state can strip citizens of their essential rights
A Staggering Portrait of Russian Journalists in Dissent Justin Chang, The New YorkerAn extraordinarily human cinematic document.. focussed on the remarkable sight of young people showing exemplary courage