How do you report the news if your own government is against the truth being exposed? Julia Loktev’s acclaimed documentary “My Undesirable Friends: Part 1 — Last Air in Moscow” examines this now universal question as independent journalists worldwide are being labeled as treasonous dissenters. “My Undesirable Friends” takes place in Moscow during the winter of 2021, with the last remaining indie news station struggling to report on the invasion of Ukraine.
The all-female staff are soon deemed enemies of the state, and are forced to go into hiding after later being declared foreign agents. “My Undesirable Friends” premiered at the 2024 New York Film Festival and screened at Berlinale 2025.
The official synopsis reads: “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?); and 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.”
The IndieWire review selected the feature as a Critics’ Pick, with the timeliness of the doc especially being praised. “My Undesirable Friends” is described as an “addictive thriller that gets to know its subjects with the fly-on-the-wall intimacy of a reality TV show.”
“‘Being at the right place at the right time — or the wrong place at the wrong time’ is how ‘The Loneliest Plane’ director Julia Loktev has described the circumstances that led to the documentary she’s made about Nemzer’s work. First conceived as a look at the daily lives of reporters who’ve been branded ‘foreign agents’ by their own government, the essence of the project — now a five-part, five-and-a-half-hour epic — was profoundly transformed four months into production, when Russia launched a full-scale invasion against Ukraine,” the review reads. “What begins as Loktev’s attempt to understand what it’s like to be forced to mark oneself as ‘other’ — right down to disclosing foreign agent status alongside wedding pictures in social media posts — gradually turns into an accidental journey into the process of decision-making at the end of the world…”
Film Forum will release “My Undesirable Friends: Part 1 — Last Air in Moscow” in NYC August 15 with a national rollout to follow. Check out the trailer below.