The challenge of any documentary director with a mission is to make the viewer care. What makes the 2026 Oscar award winning documentary Mr. Nobody Against Putin resonate so powerfully is the love and honesty that inspires it.  This is a production that showcases the unvarnished horrors of Putin’s militarization of Russia following the start of the war in Ukraine through the eyes of one man, Pavel “Pasha” Talenkin.  A school teacher in a small town in the Urals, Pasha is the definition of a Mr. Nobody.  His superpower, however, is his camera.  He is the school videographer.  Inspired by his deep love and attachment to his school and community, Pasha uses his camera to document Putin’s efforts to militarize Russian youth through the school system following the start of the war in Ukraine.  From the Soviet-era industrial backdrop of the town of Karabash to Putin’s efforts to harness the spirit of sacrifice from the Great Patriotic War, memories function on multiple levels in this film.  I had the opportunity to discuss the documentary with former guest and Penn State Professor of Rhetoric and Visual Communication, Katya Haskins.  Katya’s book, Remembering the War, Forgetting the Terror: Appeals to Family Memory in Putin's Russia, is now available in paperback.