When Independent Journalism Becomes 'Undesirable': A Documentary That Captures History in Real Time
As authoritarian regimes worldwide tighten their grip on press freedom, Julia Loktev's monumental documentary My Undesirable Friends: Part I - Last Air in Moscow arrives at a crucial moment. The five-and-a-half-hour film, now entering Oscar shortlist voting with unprecedented momentum, offers an unflinching look at what happens when independent journalism becomes an act of resistance.
Born in the former Soviet Union and raised in America, Loktev returned to Moscow in 2021 with her camera, unknowingly documenting the final moments of press freedom before Putin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. What she captured was nothing short of history unfolding in real time.
The Last Breath of Independent Media
The film follows three remarkable women journalists: Anna Nemzer from TV Rain, Russia's last independent news channel; Ksenia Mironova, also from TV Rain; and Elena Kostyuchenko from Novaya Gazeta, often compared to Joan Didion for her incisive reporting. These are the filmmaker's "undesirable friends," a term that carries chilling legal weight in Putin's Russia.
"'Undesirable organization' is actually a legal classification in Russia," Loktev explains. "Russia has now deemed almost all independent media as undesirable organizations along with many civil rights organizations, NGOs, educational institutions. Things like Greenpeace have been declared undesirable organizations, a few universities like Bard College, Yale."
The designation isn't merely bureaucratic theater. It's a weapon of state repression that transforms journalists into enemies, educators into threats, and civil society into something to be eliminated.
A Mirror to American Democracy
While documenting Russian authoritarianism, Loktev draws uncomfortable parallels to trends in American politics. The Russian government's shutdown of Memorial, the country's oldest human rights organization dedicated to preserving memory of political repression victims, echoes familiar rhetoric about "uncomfortable" history.
"They shut this down saying, 'Why should we have to be ashamed of our history? We won World War II. Can't we talk about pleasant things instead of unpleasant things?'" Loktev notes, then draws the connection: "'Why must we talk about unpleasant things like slavery? Can't we just talk about the nice things in our history and tell it in a glorified way?' That's very much part of how these things work. It is part of how authoritarians work."
This sanitization of history, whether in Putin's Russia or Trump's America, serves the same purpose: controlling the narrative to justify present-day authoritarianism.
The Human Cost of Speaking Truth
What makes Loktev's documentary extraordinary isn't just its subject matter, but its intimate approach. Shot in pure vérité style, the film transforms from workplace comedy to thriller as the noose of censorship tightens around its protagonists.
"Some of them have been declared terrorists and extremists in Russia," Loktev reveals. "Some have been convicted in absentia and none of them can work openly in Russia now because over the course of the film, Russia basically shut down all independent journalists and all my characters had to flee the country with a suitcase, like a carry-on suitcase, within a few hours."
The film's second part, currently in production, will follow these journalists in exile across 13 countries as they attempt to rebuild their lives and continue their work. It's a testament to the resilience of those who refuse to let authoritarianism have the final word.
Why This Matters Now
As press freedom faces threats globally, including in established democracies, My Undesirable Friends serves as both warning and inspiration. It shows how quickly independent media can be dismantled, but also how journalists continue fighting even when the battle seems lost.
The film's critical acclaim, including wins at the Gotham Awards and New York Film Critics Circle Awards, suggests audiences hunger for stories that illuminate the fragility of democratic institutions. In an era of disinformation and attacks on journalism, Loktev's work reminds us that the price of press freedom is eternal vigilance.
"I'm endlessly surprised by how people keep working," Loktev reflects. "How people even now in exile, all of them work as independent journalists. How they find the strength to keep going, how you keep fighting when the fight seems lost."
In a world where journalism itself can be branded "undesirable," that fight has never been more essential.