Taken together, this eleven-hour film is a clear-eyed glimpse into how fascism takes root, and just how fucking hard it is to fight it with the truth in a post-truth world.[Read more in this week's Directed By Women Viewing Guide]
Directed by Julia Loktev
A grounded, critically acclaimed documentary.
A group of Russian independent journalists flee the country and navigate life in exile after the invasion of Ukraine, focusing on their dispersed lives and ongoing struggle for truth across different nations. While Part I documented their lives in Moscow facing mounting pressure from the Putin regime, Part II chronicles their forced displacement and new realities in various countries, continuing their mission against authoritarianism.
My Undesirable Friends: Part II - Exile is showing in 1 cinema in Los Angeles - next screening Friday 16 October at 13:30 at Laemmle Royal.
Next screenings: Friday 16 October.
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Taken together, this eleven-hour film is a clear-eyed glimpse into how fascism takes root, and just how fucking hard it is to fight it with the truth in a post-truth world.[Read more in this week's Directed By Women Viewing Guide]
Always a major pleasure speaking with Julia Loktev about her My Undesirable Friends project, which concludes with a film that moved me like few others this year or in any recent memory.No, those are different kinds of scary, and they’re kind of two different observations about specific things that are scary. [Laughs] I think they’re important to at least tap into or talk through. Yeah, for most of these characters, when they left Russia, they had a sense of, immediately, “Now I’m safe. Now I can do my work. I no longer worry every moment about police showing up at my door.” And then slowly they realize that they’re not really going to be entirely safe anywhere because Russia continues to pursue them; they have to be wary of people who enter their midst.
during the q&a julia loktev made it sound like she's STILL filming her undesirable friends so idk maybe eleven hours isn't the end of this project. part one is an exercise in dramatic irony, and part two is limbo, an exploration of what it means to be stateless, struggling to find purpose or shed the guilt of your fascist government's actions as it commits atrocities in your absence. it lands in some places that are a bit too on the nose for me as a western viewer, particularly when ksenia ends up in dc on january 20, 2025 covering trump's reelection and comments directly on how much it reminds her of russia, or during elena's book event when she warns the audience directly how fascism can develop. these more direct conclusions and comments in some ways make the second part redundant to the first. but it's also an epic examination of the aftershocks of all these characters being scattered to the wind and refusing to assimilate into the societies they see as temporary homes. and it's a movie about bleaching your hair.
The film follows a network of Russian independent journalists as they navigate forced displacement and new realities in exile following the invasion of Ukraine.
It was directed by Julia Loktev, released in 2026, as an extensive continuation of her documentary work on press freedom and authoritarianism.
The documentary has a runtime of 355 minutes, capturing four years of displacement across multiple countries.
