Ep 864: Julia Loktev

Filmwax friend Julia Loktev returns to the podcast for her third visit. Last Fall the first part of her epic documentary premiered at the New York Film Festival. This Friday, August 15th “My Undesirable Friends: Part 1 — Last Air in Moscow” will have its theatrical premiere at Film Forum in New York City.

Moscow, winter 2021: At TV Rain, the only remaining independent channel, young journalists have been branded foreign agents— targeted for surveillance or worse, and required to tag their reporting with a disclaimer that they are serving foreign powers. Regardless: Ksyusha furiously produces and edits stories to distract herself from her fellow-journalist fiancé’s imprisonment; Anya hosts everyday heroes of resistance on her interview show, while shielding both her sanity and her young daughter from the regime’s relentless fuckery; Sonya produces the “Hi, You’re a Foreign Agent” podcast at her kitchen table while beholding her empty living room (why buy a sofa when who knows what will happen to her?); Alesya fends off anxiety that her office has been bugged, while hiding her relationship with her girlfriend from her traditional mother. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is just weeks away, as these Gen-Z heroines confront propagandist absurdity and personal endangerment, fighting for the soul of a country they love to the bitter end.