Julia Loktev’s My Undesirable Friends: Part II — Exile premiered out of competition at the 83rd Venice International Film Festival on Friday, 4 September, bringing a record of Russian journalists’ forced departure and subsequent exile to one of cinema’s largest international stages.
The 355-minute documentary follows reporters and editors from outlets including TV Rain, Novaya Gazeta and iStories after they fled Russia following the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. It examines the practical and personal strain of continuing their work abroad while facing the prospect of terrorism designations by their own government and death threats.
Loktev, a Russian-American filmmaker, began the second instalment two days after the events depicted in its predecessor. Part I covered the period from October 2021 to February 2022, a span of four and a half months. The new film stretches across four and a half years, following its subjects in exile across a dozen countries over four years.
The journalists moved through countries including Turkey, Austria and Poland. Some left Moscow within hours of learning that police were planning to raid TV Rain. The Kremlin had designated TV Rain an undesirable organisation, and the channel was fully banned by the end of Part I.
Russia had already labelled some of its most critical journalists as foreign agents before the invasion. By the close of the first film, Russia had invaded Ukraine and all of Loktev’s subjects had left their country. Novaya Gazeta’s licence was revoked, according to the film’s background account.
Among those appearing in the documentary are Elena Kostyuchenko, a reporter for Novaya Gazeta; Valeria Ratnikova, a presenter for TV Rain; and Anna Nemzer, TV Rain’s chief editor. Their experiences form part of what is described as a five-chapter documentary series.
The film records efforts to resume work from abroad. Its subjects continue reporting on their country’s war crimes, while also trying to establish new ways of working. Some started podcasts and wrote books. Some joined the Ukrainian army.
Loktev said the second part was “a much more complex” and “a much more emotional story” about people who “have had to leave their country on a moment’s notice”. The documentary explores how its subjects try to find their footing abroad while maintaining their journalism under these conditions.
At 355 minutes, Part II is half an hour longer than Part I. Its scale reflects the passage from an abrupt departure to a prolonged and unsettled existence across borders, with the reporters’ professional work continuing alongside threats and official pressure from Russia.
The Venice screening gives the story a prominent cultural platform at a time when independent Russian outlets and journalists have faced foreign-agent and undesirable-organisation designations that have forced organisations to stop operating or reporters to leave. The film has been established as an early highlight of the festival.
After Venice, My Undesirable Friends: Part II — Exile will screen at the New York Film Festival. It is due to open in theatres and on Mubi later this year.
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