Get the latest gossip
‘My Undesirable Friends: Part I — Last Air in Moscow’ Review: An Intimate Documentary Epic About Journalists at War
Julia Loktev’s gargantuan undertaking 'My Undesirable Friends' — the first of two films about Russian reporters — builds to the Ukraine invasion.
At nearly five-and-a-half hours — further divided into five massive chapters — Julia Loktev ’s “ My Undesirable Friends: Part I — Last Air in Moscow ” is less like typical docu-journalism, and more akin to Tolstoy’s “War and Peace.” The first volume in a two-part series about independent reporters, it lays out its twists and turns early on: At some point during its runtime, Russia will launch a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The answer is a resounding “Yes, and then some,” owing to the lengthy, casual foundation the film lays during its first three chapters (each running about an hour, give or take) using conversation snippets, news footage and even its subjects’ typed reports appearing as on-screen text. Three hours in, its focus is forced to shift to a novice journalist, Ksenia Mironova (though it retains most of its original supporting “cast”), whose partner is a prisoner of the state, and who’s soon faced with the reality of having to leave Russia once Putin’s hammer comes down on anyone reporting on the war.
Or read this on Variety
