MY UNDESIRABLE FRIENDS part II: EXILE (2026)

 

(Saw this at the great FILM FORUM theater in NYC)

(Parts 1 to 3)

(Paraphrasing) "I will go back to Russia... why should Putin make me? I love Russia more than he ever will." (Elena Kostyuchenko, who is braver than I ever will be in all my life)

How else would you get by in Russia in September of 2022 without Xanax though? 

First notes: Part 2 is still just as intimately observed, so many moment where Julia's friends are just trying to get their bearings, bewilderment and sadness... and also a lot of joking for their loved ones' expense, and that need to continue reporting and being a journalist - even (especially) as several of these women would be arrested as soon ss they set foot on Russian soil. Heck, one of them wants to go report in Mariupol (because that is what she does) but cannot as she hears from so many sources she will be *killed* if she is seen at a checkpoint. Yikes.

One particularly mortifying and almost surreal highlight of part 1: when Ksenia returns to Russia - the only one to do so since the exile - to see her fiancee in court as he is... sentenced to decades in prison for holding "state secrets," which of course was bullshit. But how Loktev shows the aftermath, which is fairly brief compared to everything else here, and how there are suddenly all of these cameras and "offical" media is what makes it so wild - you almost fear for her that she can even get out of that situation in piece.

(Parts 4 and 5)

The hard cut from the Alexei Navalny killing to January 20th 2025.... fuck. Just fuck. The flames... the flames....

"Exile" may seem like a little more of the same from the first part when looking at the first half of part two as we see more of these journalists talking and trying to keep normalcy in their relaationships and at sorts work they still have, mostly women (maybe there are one or two prominent male journalists, as a total outsider my only guess is that women a) women are more inspired to persist at their positions and to get to their educational peaks than men in Russia and/or b) male journalists like Ksenia's fiancee are sentenced to prison for many many years - not that the women aren't either, though here it is shown as "in asebntia," which is its own Kafkaesque horrorshow). But what makes this as important and perhaps even more vital than part 1 is that now that the Worst Thing that seemed to happen to them has... what comes next becomes even more harrowing and sobering and meaningful for us.

Or "meaningful" is not the word I should use so flippantly... revealing is the key thing, how Loktev through her carefully curated footage (it is important to note that as casual as some of this seems, and Loktev shot tons of hours on her iPhone, the subjects were allowed to look through it all and say where they didn't want this or that included as it could harm some of their family or friends if so and so was included in the finished film) shows that the most courageous thing many of the people here can do is just... 

Keep reporting. Keep writing. Keep podcasting and appearing on the air. Even as, yep, there are mistakes made, big or minor depending on your point of view (though I did want to know a little more about the one fired anchor who posted the email to send funds to the Russian army on RainTV, but the fact that it happened is more significant than whoever this idiot was).

What is impactful is that there are also degrees to which the journalists and writers and news media figures have to what they do and also to their home land (now all "Undesirables" aka practical fugitives from Russian bullshit law). The one writer Lena is ready to go home, right away, yesterday, even as she knows she is targeted for arrest or death. That is one extreme, and how her story unfolds is staggering and heart breaking while also inspiring (my audience let out a collective gasp when it is revealed she was poisoned, but she did get better thank fucking god). 

Another is what Loktev shows of the women in Prague who actually do have jobs continuous from before they left but are still targeted. And yet another is the RainTV team, including Anya who we see in multiple locations from Tel Aviv to Georgia (the country) and then to NYC, and so often we are seeing these people go from one place to the next and at times they can laugh and at other times they are exhausted and other times the tears from the absurdity and pain and madness of it all does get to them.

So that is the thing really, is that the documentary manages to touch on so many different things yet they are all under the same umbrella of What is it to be a Human Being in this situation: how do you settle? How do you find where to put your book-shelf, if at all? How do you persist when there is a legitimate media crisis amid a war that has made everything awful (and just the words "our army" adds fuel to a fire which is too complicated to get into here)?

 How do you not just lose your sanity as this war goes on and cities are demolished and atrocities made? But as with part 1 it is not the large dramatic beats that make this so special but when Loktev is just locked in with a couple of people, like the long car ride where we see the Russian and Ukranian journalist couple being adorable and grounded with one abother, or when Anya has to talk to her daughter about this or that minor thing that all parents do, or when Lena had that dance at the end of her book tour.

Not to say the dramatic moments don't pack a punch, or when the one journalist is in DC talking to the fascist and other half-wits (one of which talks with a straight face about how trump will stop the "post birth abortions" and I have rarely felt so embarrassed to be an American in all my life), or even seeing the one guy suddenly in the Ukranian army and what he gets on his own video with his troops and how rousing that can feel in the moment. And while it might feel like a sudden "oh hey an actual Real-World event in this movie" when Navalny is announced killed, what Loktev does is make it infuriating and shocking and saddening all over again because we have become so involved in these women's lives and work and how they are affected (and Navalny's words) and were changed by him hits at the heart of what they do. Should they go on? Can they go on? What do they do with their anger?

What do we do with our anger? How do you stand up against evil? One minute at a time by enduring, is more or less the thing.