Quartile rating: 7/10 · 1 rating
As Russia launches its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, primary schools across Russia’s hinterlands are transformed into recruitment stages for the war. Facing the ethical dilemma of working in a system defined by propaganda and violence, a brave teacher goes undercover to film what’s really happening in his own school.
This observational documentary earns strong marks for novelty — a schoolteacher covertly filming state propaganda indoctrination of children in real time is a genuinely rare and courageous piece of first-person witnessing, with a distinctive voice and ethical urgency that sets it apart from standard war-adjacent docs. The plot structure is inherently compelling given the subject matter, though documentary narrative arcs can feel uneven when constrained by real events. Cinematography is functional and occasionally striking given the undercover constraints, but not aesthetically ambitious by design. Acting is not applicable in a traditional sense, rated low to reflect the absence of performed craft. The ending, like many activist docs, resolves more with moral weight than dramatic closure.