On March 16, an excited Pável Talankin (Karabash, Russia, 35 years old) took the stage at the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles to receive the Oscar for best documentary feature from Jimmy Kimmel. The co-director of the documentary — along with David Borenstein — about the indoctrination of Russian students to support the invasion of Ukraine turned it into an appeal on behalf of countries where “instead of shooting stars they have bombs and drones that shoot.” “In the name of our future, in the name of all our children, stop all these wars right now!” Talankin said to applause and cheers from the Hollywood stars present in the audience.
Everything was joy and celebration for the Russian documentary filmmaker and his team, but, after that, Talankin does not stop encountering obstacles on the road. First, on March 27, two weeks after the Oscars, , which added the teacher to its banned list and accused him of opposing the war against Ukraine. A day earlier, a court in the region where he taught, Chelyabinsk, banned the broadcast of the film that earned him recognition from the Academy. Now, he has been left without the prize. According to his colleague Borenstein this Thursday, April 30, the co-director’s statuette has disappeared after he was forced to check the Oscar as checked baggage on a flight from New York to Germany.
“At the airport, a TSA agent [Administración de Seguridad en el Transporte de EE UU] He stopped him and told him that the Oscar could be used as a weapon. Pavel didn’t have a suitcase to check it in, so the TSA put the Oscar in a box and sent it to the back of the plane. “It never arrived in Frankfurt,” Borenstein explains along with a series of images, including a photo showing the box they last saw Oscar in. A video has also been released in which two Lufthansa workers wrap the statuette in bubble wrap before placing it in the box.
“I’ve searched and I can’t find a single other case of someone who has been forced to bill for an Oscar. Would they have treated Pavel in the same way if he were a famous actor? Or if he spoke fluent English?” Borenstein said in the text of the publication, directly mentioning the TSA account.
He has also mentioned the German airline, whom he asks for help: “Please help us find it. If you have any information, please send us a direct message. And if anyone else has ever had to check in an Oscar statuette, I would love to know.” Lufthansa, unlike the TSA, was quick to respond through a comment on the publication. “Oh, no! An Oscar has been lost! We understand you and we are here to help you. This is what is going to happen now: we take charge of the matter. And we take it very seriously. Our team is ready to help you locate the lost package and return it to its place. We are committed to achieving it,” responded the company, which says it has taken the matter “to a higher level”, with language more typical of a bot.
In statements Upon his arrival in Germany this Thursday, Talankin states that he finds it “completely disconcerting that they consider an Oscar a weapon.” “On previous flights with several airlines, I had traveled with him in the cabin, and there was never any type of problem,” he told the film media. The Russian documentary filmmaker claims that a Lufthansa worker who went to security on Wednesday offered to accompany him to the boarding gate and keep his statuette during the flight, but a TSA agent rejected the offer. Talankin also notes that the Lufthansa worker proposed storing the Oscar in the cockpit during the flight, but the TSA and an airline supervisor dismissed the idea.
Talankin and Borenstein’s documentary used two years of recordings the former made at a school where he worked in Russia’s Chelyabinsk region to show how students were exposed to pro-war messages. He fled Russia in 2024 and defends the film as a testimony for posterity that shows how “an entire generation became angry and aggressive.”
