Entertainment · Film · 2 hrs ago
Julia Loktev’s Documentary Changed After Russia Invaded Ukraine
Julia Loktev’s two-part film follows journalists at TV Rain, an independent Russian news channel.
She began filming them for a project about journalists working under pressure in Russia.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine changed the film’s direction, Loktev said.
In the first week of the war, Russia shut down independent media, including TV Rain.
The journalists were forced to leave Russia, and the second part follows them after they scattered across Europe.
Their departure showed how the war ended their ability to report from inside the country, where they had faced growing risks but could still work.
Julia Loktev’s documentary “My Undesirable Friends” changed direction after Russia invaded Ukraine.
The two-part film follows journalists at TV Rain, which the article describes as Russia’s last independent news channel before it was shut down over its coverage of the war.
The project began as a story about journalists working in a hostile climate.
After the journalists were forced to leave Russia and scatter across Europe, the film expanded in scope.
Loktev said the films took shape during the week Russia invaded Ukraine.
- Who
- Filmmaker Julia Loktev and the journalists at TV Rain.
- What
- Loktev’s two-part documentary “My Undesirable Friends” changed as its subjects were forced to leave Russia.
- When
- The films took shape during the week Russia invaded Ukraine. Loktev said the invasion came four and a half months after she began the project.
- Where
- The story follows journalists working in Russia and later scattering across Europe.
- Why
- Russia’s invasion and the shutdown of independent media changed the journalists’ lives and the nature of the film.
This story does not have two clearly opposing sides.
Loktev began filming young journalists being called foreign agents for a film she thought would be called “The Lives of Foreign Agents.
Russia began a full-scale war with Ukraine, Loktev said.
Russia shut down all independent media, according to Loktev.
Part II” begins after the journalists were forced to leave the country.
- Filmmaker
- Julia Loktev
- Documentary
- My Undesirable Friends,” a two-part film
- Subjects
- Journalists at TV Rain
- Project’s initial title
- The Lives of Foreign Agents
- Time to invasion
- Four and a half months after Loktev began the project
- Later locations
- The journalists scattered across Europe
1 source
What people are saying
Neither of these two films were supposed to happen
But that first week was terrifying. Nobody could imagine invading Ukraine.
And then that stopped.