Oscar-winning documentary violated children’s privacy laws – Moscow
A Russian human rights board has filed a complaint against the film ‘Mr. Nobody Against Putin’
The Oscar-winning documentary ‘Mr. Nobody Against Putin’, about day-to-day life inside a Russian school, violated privacy laws concerning minors, Russian human rights officials said on Wednesday.
The Russian Human Rights Council, a presidential advisory body, said parents alleged that Pavel Talankin, a former videographer at a school in the small town of Karabash in Russia’s Ural Mountains, and US filmmaker David Borenstein included footage of children in their film without consent.
Talankin filmed various extracurricular activities as part of his job and took the video archive with him when he left Russia in 2024. The film he made with Borenstein using the footage won an Academy Award on Sunday.
Russian officials alleged that the documentary violated the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child, which protects children from “arbitrary or unlawful interference with his or her privacy.”
The council said it filed a complaint with the US Motion Picture Academy and UNESCO, arguing that the film “violated international standards for the protection of children’s rights and commonly held ethical principles regarding the handling of materials depicting minors.”
The film premiered at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival to widespread acclaim, winning several awards, including a BAFTA.