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 Undesirable Friends: Part II — Exile,” which opens in select theaters this weekend, is the second half of Loktev’s portrait of Russian journalists and the culmination of a five-year project. It began with Loktev filming a group of independent journalists in Moscow in the fall of 2021 as Vladimir Putin was starting to declare some reporters “foreign agents.”
Just four months later, the situation changed dramatically when Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, causing many journalists to flee the country on just hours’ notice. Loktev kept filming, following her subjects as they reported on the war from exile.
“People hear, they’re like, ‘Oh my god a six-hour film about journalists? That’s really scary.’ But it’s actually not,” Loktev told The Associated Press in a recent interview. “It’s kind of a hangout film. It’s a friendly film.”
While a six-hour documentary may sound daunting, Loktev’s work defies that expectation. She faced a similar challenge with the first film, “My Undesirable Friends: Part I — Last Air in Moscow,” which was shortlisted for an Oscar nomination and is currently streaming on MUBI. This first installment, which portrays journalists working in a society on the brink of losing press freedoms, is nearly 5 1/2 hours long.
Now she is doing it again, without the backing of a traditional theatrical distributor. A publicist even mentioned hearing that some people are hesitant to watch the film because they are “kind of tired about hearing about press freedoms and authoritarianism.”
“I’m like, that’s really interesting, because authoritarianism isn’t tired of them,” Loktev responded.
Despite the heavy subject matter, Loktev’s films feel engaging rather than like homework. You don’t need to watch “Part I” to understand “Part II.” The main reason for this is the relatable nature of her subjects, who are mostly in their 20s and 30s, facing extraordinary circumstances.
“This is a film about very ordinary people who are just trying to do something good in an awful time,” Loktev said. “The film is so much about perseverance and how do you keep telling the story when attention moves away? … How do you maintain optimism, or at least enough optimism, to get up the next morning and do your job?”
Since 2021, Russian authorities have labeled dozens of outlets and journalists as “foreign agents,” a designation aimed at discrediting them and limiting their advertising revenue. They have also outlawed and imprisoned journalists, leading many outlets to move their newsrooms abroad since the invasion of Ukraine, which are accessible in Russia via virtual private networks, or VPNs.
Loktev, who was born in the former Soviet Union and immigrated to the U.S. at age 9, filmed her subjects on an iPhone. This choice helped her blend into the background. In “Part II,” she traveled across various European countries as her subjects dispersed.
After the invasion, Loktev left Russia a little later than her subjects. She wanted to ensure her footage was uploaded to the cloud before attempting to exit the country. She had been warned that if an official looks at a passport longer than usual and says that the “computer is hanging,” it likely means they are checking you out.
“I was standing there … at the airport in Moscow and I’m like, ‘Is there an issue?’ and they’re like, ‘No, no our computer’s just hanging,’” she recalled. “It was hanging for a good 20 minutes. I tried not to pee my pants.”
The film features several subjects, including Anna Nemzer, who joined Loktev at the Venice Film Festival for the film’s world premiere. Many of these journalists continue to work from abroad, but one subject, Peter Ruzavin, a former Russian journalist married to a Ukrainian journalist, decided to enlist in the Ukrainian army. He explained that while journalism can show reality, it often does not change it.
“We need not to run away from Putin. We need to fight him,” Ruzavin said, having served in the Ukrainian army for over two years. “That’s why I made my decision. I left the best work. I miss it every day.”
Loktev has noticed some intriguing headlines about her film, such as one in The Daily Beast that claims “Vladimir Putin’s ‘War Crimes’ Exposed in Shocking New Film.” While her documentary is not an exposé on war crimes, it serves as a reminder of the ongoing struggle of journalists featured in the film.
“I think that’s something that we’re struggling with now in a way with the film, I’ll be honest, is that everybody moves on to the next thing,” Loktev shared. “But the last thing hasn’t changed.”
Loktev has expressed a desire to create a “Part III” if the political situation in Russia changes, saying, “But I think we might be very old by then.”
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Associated Press reporter Dasha Litvinova in Tallinn, Estonia, contributed to this story.
