Loktev’s epic five-and-a-half-hour documentary starts with the dawning of the “foreign agent” age. Every TV Rain show and social media post must be prefaced with the Putin’s regime’s mandated boilerplate labeling what follows as the product of paid foreign agitation. As they comply with the law, Nemzer and her colleagues mock the disclaimer, turning it into a badge of honor. They are hardly the only “foreign agents.” All reasonably independent journalists and scores of NGOs and their employees were tarred with the same scarlet letter. It was even unjustly applied to Memorial, the now-defunct non-profit, founded during the Soviet era, which documented the Communists’ crimes against humanity—a practice that Putin obviously considered bad for business.
As Nemzer and her colleagues struggle to comply with the new rules, she and Loktev regularly check in with friends who are slowly becoming dissidents, like “Ksyusha," whose husband, Ivan Safronov was (and still is) imprisoned on treason charges. Eventually, she too joins TV Rain, but when things get bad, she is the most reluctant to consider exile, because she knows it will be used against her husband.
Nemzer and Loktev also introduce viewers to a TV Rain roommates who are arduously appealing a past case through Russia’s kangaroo appellate courts, for the sake of ultimately petitioning the European Court of Human Rights. Yet, that effort goes for naught after Putin launches his war on Ukraine and withdraws from the Council of Europe.
It takes Loktev three and a half absurdist hours to get to that point. Things move much quicker during the second two-hour section, which begins with the start of the Ukraine invasion. Despite expecting it on an intellectual level, those associated with TV Rain react with shock and horror, which quickly turns to panic.
Putin’s regime prohibits the use of the word “war” in media coverage insisting on the euphemism “special military operation” instead. It also mandates only Russan government sources can only be cited. Working around such restrictions becomes increasingly dicey, especially as TV Rain personnel are increasingly detained. Loktev spends considerable time waiting outside one such holding facility, waiting and hoping for the release of on-camera anchor Eduard “Edik” Burmistrov, who wasn’t even arrested for his TV Rain work. He just happened to attend a vigil for assassinated opposition leader Boris Nemtsov.
My Undesirable Friends is absolutely harrowing stuff. In retrospect, the mammoth shape makes a lot of sense. For a while, the constant drumbeat of outrages are like the drippings of water torture, but after the WAR begins, it becomes a genuine monsoon. Perhaps a half hour could have been pruned from the “before” section, but that is arguably rather high praise for a film that runs over five hours.
Regardless, the madness and the sheer pettiness Loktev documents is bizarre and terrifying. The audience essentially witnesses an entire nation lose its mind, driving away or imprisoning its future generations in the process. Nemzer is a wise choice to serve as the film’s initial voice, because she is incredibly smart and charismatic, but also highly relatable as a parent. She is also already realistic to the point of cynicism. Consequently, instead of shaking our heads at her naivete, we [sadly] nod for her prescience.