Russian journalists fled their country after the invasion of Ukraine. My Undesirable Friends: Part II follows their lives in exile.

Julia Loktev's My Undesirable Friends: Part II — Exile premiered at the Venice Film Festival, continuing her documentary chronicle of journalists from TV Rain, iStories, and Novaya Gazeta who fled Russia after the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. The film, shot on iPhone and running alongside its predecessor to roughly twelve hours total, follows the reporters as they scatter across Israel, Georgia, Istanbul, and Prague trying to keep working from exile.

Critic Anton Dolin, himself convicted in absentia by Russian authorities and writing for a publication Russia has labeled an undesirable organization, reviewed the film for Meduza. He notes it has already won best documentary at the Gotham Independent Film Awards and made the Oscar shortlist, and that Venice this year is stacked with similarly marathon-length nonfiction films, though Loktev's still sets the record among them.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.