'My Undesirable Friends Part II - Exile' Follows Journalists Forced to Flee Russia
The nearly six-hour documentary tracks reporters who fled after the crackdown and kept covering Russia’s war from exile.
- Filmmaker Julia Loktev releases 'My Undesirable Friends: Part II- Exile' in select theaters this weekend, concluding a five-year project documenting independent Russian journalists fleeing their homeland.
- Production began in fall 2021 as Vladimir Putin labeled reporters 'foreign agents'; four months later, Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, forcing journalists to flee on short notice.
- Peter Ruzavin, a former Russian journalist, enlisted in the Ukrainian army after realizing 'journalism was showing reality, it wasn't changing it,' providing a striking arc midway through the documentary.
- Without traditional theatrical distribution, Loktev faces skepticism; a publicist reported audiences feel 'tired about hearing about press freedoms,' but Loktev counters 'authoritarianism isn't tired of them.'
- Following the Venice Film Festival premiere, Loktev expressed a 'fantasy' of creating a third installment 'if ever the political situation in Russia changes,' underscoring the ongoing stakes for exiled journalists.
21 Articles
21 Articles
Who's afraid of a 6-hour documentary about exiled Russian journalists?
Julia Loktev's new documentary begins almost like a tense Hollywood spy thriller. The journalists she's filming on her iPhone scramble to get out of Russia, many without a plan or lodging and with only a carry-on suitcase full of hastily packed things, hoping they're not held up at the border.
Who's afraid of a 6-hour documentary about exiled Russian journal
Julia Loktev’s new documentary begins almost like a tense Hollywood spy thriller. The journalists she’s filming on her iPhone scramble to get out of Russia, many without a plan or lodging and with only a carry-on suitcase
Who’s afraid of a 6-hour documentary about exiled Russian journalists? – WTOP News
Julia Loktev’s new documentary begins almost like a tense Hollywood spy thriller. The journalists she’s filming on her iPhone scramble to get out of Russia, many without a plan or lodging and with only a carry-on suitcase full of hastily packed things, hoping they’re not held up at the border. At nearly six hours, “My...
Winnipeg Free Press
Who’s afraid of a 6-hour documentary about exiled Russian journalists?
Julia Loktev’s new documentary begins almost like a tense Hollywood spy thriller. The journalists she’s filming on her iPhone scramble to get out of Russia, many without a plan or lodging and with only a carry-on suitcase full of hastily packed things, hoping they’re not held up at the border.
‘My Undesirable Friends: Part II — Exile’ Review: Don’t Be Intimidated by Julia Loktev’s Gripping Six-Hour Wartime Journalism Epic
The first part of Julia Loktev’s riveting dissident journalism saga, “My Undesirable Friends,” saw the collapse of Russia’s last remaining independent news channel happen in real time. The second part, “My Undesirable Friends: Part II — Exile,” follows those voices of TV Rain in global freefall after fleeing their country following Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 — as they try to reconstitute and reckon with the guilt and shame they feel ove…
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Bias Distribution
- 48% of the sources lean Left, 47% of the sources are Center
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