Sometimes, timing is everything. If Julia Loktev’s 5 hour and 24-minute documentary masterpiece “My Undesirable Friends: Part 1 — Last Air in Moscow” can be boiled down to its essence, it may be that, often in life, there is a “before” and an “after,” and nothing can possibly prepare you for what comes after. In this case, the event that changes everything for the courageous generation of Russian journalists that came of age under Vladimir Putin’s reign is the Russian leader’s cataclysmic invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022.

Julia and journalist / film participant Ksenia Mironova join Ken on “Top Docs” to discuss the vibrant world of independent journalism that existed in Russia in the period prior to the invasion, and the subsequent crackdown that ended it all. Filming Ksenia and a cohort of women journalists in the months leading up the invasion with her iPhone, Julia captures an intimate, inspiring world of hope, youthful ambition and a deep commitment to reporting the truth in a country where government propaganda is one of Putin’s most powerful weapons of control. Bearing witness, first as the government brands news outlets, NGOs and individual journalists as foreign agents, and then through instances of arrest and imprisonment (including Ksenia’s fiancé), Julia finds herself filming as the clock strikes midnight on any semblance of freedom of the press in Russia. By the end of Part 1, all the film’s participants are forced to flee the country. Timing may be everything, but the story never ends. Part 2 on “The Exiles” is already underway.

Hidden Gems:

Julia: “Four Daughters”, “July Rain” by

Ksenia: “Holocaust: Is That Wallpaper Paste?”

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"My Undesirable Friends: Part 1 — Last Air in Moscow" with Julia Loktev & Ksenia Mironova