Pasha Talankian, Oscar winner for A Nobody Against Putinclaims that his figurine disappeared after being prevented from boarding a plane with it. According to him, officials from the TSA, the American agency responsible for ensuring security at airports, did not allow him onto the aircraft with the prize, claiming that it could be used as a weapon.
Talankian is the director and protagonist of the film, which won an Oscar this year in the Best Documentary category. The filmmaker stated that he had already managed to travel with the Oscar in his hand luggage on other occasions; however, he encountered obstacles last Wednesday, the 29th, when trying to board at JFK airport, in New York.
In an interview with the American website Deadline, he said it was “incomprehensible” why the Oscar was considered a weapon, and highlighted that he had never had a problem with other airlines.
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The artist stated that a Lufthansa employee made some suggestions on how to proceed with the situation, but they were all denied by the TSA. According to the filmmaker, the man would have offered to keep the statuette during the flight, after accompanying him to the boarding gate, in addition to keeping the prize in the flight deck.
However, Talankian had to check Oscar into the plane’s luggage compartment, as he was told. The director did not have any rigid suitcase that could be used to carry the statuette; They then gave him a cardboard box, which he placed his prize in during the flight to Frankfurt, Germany.
However, upon arriving at his destination, the box was gone.
A school employee in a rural area of Russia, Pasha Talankian recorded the escalation of military propaganda at the school where he worked, after the start of the war against Ukraine. Today, he lives in exile, far from his home country.
Colleague appeals
David Borenstein, also director of the winning documentary, made a post on his Instagram about the case. In the post, he used an image of Talankian, with the award. After explaining the events, the filmmaker raised a question.
“Would Pavel have been treated the same way if he had been a famous actor? Or a fluent English speaker?”, he asked, due to the fact that Talankian spoke Russian, and had to turn to executive producer Robin Hessman to help him translate during the conversation with employees.
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Borestein also said that he carried out a search for other artists who had sent away their prizes and that he was unable to “find a single other case”. The director ended the post with an appeal to anyone who may have information about the figurine.
