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- 2025
- 5 h 24 m
- 2025
- 5 h 24 m
Summary Julia Loktev documents independent journalists in Moscow facing government crackdown as Russia invades Ukraine, capturing their fight for speech amid risks of being branded "foreign agents" and the country's drift towards authoritarianism.
Directed By: Julia Loktev
Written By: Julia Loktev
- 2025
- 5 h 24 m
- 2025
- 5 h 24 m
My Undesirable Friends: Part I - Last Air in Moscow
94
7.7
Where to Watch
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Summary Julia Loktev documents independent journalists in Moscow facing government crackdown as Russia invades Ukraine, capturing their fight for speech amid risks of being branded "foreign agents" and the country's drift towards authoritarianism.
Directed By: Julia Loktev
Written By: Julia Loktev
Where to Watch
Coming Soon
Not available in your country?
ExpressVPN
Get 3 Extra months free
$6.67/mth
Top Cast
Metascore
Universal Acclaim Based on 12 Critic Reviews
94
100% Positive
12 Reviews
12 Reviews
0% Mixed
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Universal Acclaim Based on 12 Critic Reviews
94
100% Positive
12 Reviews
12 Reviews
0% Mixed
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Nov 26, 2025
“My Undesirable Friends” captures dark times with some of the funniest people you’d ever hope to have as sisters-in-arms. Defiant, emotional and life-affirming, the film presents us with endearing patriots who love their country but hate its leaders, sucking us into a riveting tale with a powerful undertow.
Aug 22, 2025
For all five hours, Loktev’s camera is positioned close to her subjects, much like a friend in the same room, lending the project an intimacy and empathy that it would have otherwise lacked. And the length allows us to really get to know these people, feeling their frustration and their tension. It becomes our own. We don’t just see it. We feel it in our bones.
Oct 10, 2024
Loktev’s film is a stunningly stressful experience in what it’s like to actually decide when the desire to stay and fight should give way to the need to cut and run.
Oct 8, 2025
Loktev’s immersion in the action provides a pulse-pounding quality when things come crumbling down, resulting in an intimate, enormous, urgent political portrait of speaking truth to power, and speaking it together.
Aug 18, 2025
It’s one of the best films of the year, full stop. But now it’s both invaluable and something of a warning for many of us on the shape of things to come.
Oct 8, 2025
At times the movie feels so raw and unedited, it’s as if Loktev dumped all her footage onto the table without shaping it into a definitive cut. Perhaps a leaner two-hour version would have yielded something more dynamic, though the point of My Undesirable Friends isn’t to entertain us, but to capture every detail of a democratic movement that was doomed to fail.
Oct 8, 2025
The drama is all surface, in other words. And what a surface, for sure. A literal life and death struggle that’s exceedingly of this moment. Yet the best documentaries tend to have formidable underlying narratives working in concert with their overlying ones.
User Score
Generally Favorable Based on 13 User Ratings
7.7
85% Positive
11 Ratings
11 Ratings
8% Mixed
1 Rating
1 Rating
8% Negative
1 Rating
1 Rating
User Score
Generally Favorable Based on 13 User Ratings
7.7
85% Positive
11 Ratings
11 Ratings
8% Mixed
1 Rating
1 Rating
8% Negative
1 Rating
1 Rating
There are no user reviews yet. Be the first to add a review.
Awards
Gotham Awards
• 1 Win & 1 Nomination
New York Film Critics Circle Awards
• 1 Win & 1 Nomination
Film Comment Magazine, USA
• 1 Nomination
