Danish and Russian teenagers divided by a cinema wall

For some Danish students, the first days of school are not just a matter of sitting in the classroom. Their teachers talked to The Why Foundation, a non-profit organization that promotes human rights through documentaries. We are at Gentofte Kino on the outskirts of Copenhagen. Some students seem curious, others are still a bit sleepy. They are ninth graders. On a seat next to us is a red box full of smartphones that the teacher stores during school time. This is the case only since last year’s national phone ban. Last adjustments to the setup, and the film is about to begin.

Mr. Nobody Against Putin (in Czech, Pan Nikdo proti Putinovi) captures the life of an event coordinator and videographer in a Russian school in Karabash. Pavel Talankin, or “Pasha”, walked around with his camera to cover the school's transformation in the face of what turned out to be a long-term war shaping modern Russia. Risking severe punishments from the government, he covered the president talking to the country about the “special military operation”, teachers not being able to understand the official materials, but also elderly women proud of their powerful army. In other words, Talankin provided around 100 hours of footage under the excuse of being the “camera guy”. The film won an Oscar.

“Bridges between different life experiences”

Danish students are watching their Russian counterparts in a city that looks nothing like the streets of Copenhagen, but instead resembles pictures from a history textbook. We can see a young boy carrying a Russian flag in a morning line-up and a girl learning script to answer the teacher on camera.

“One of the most important things our programmes do is to build bridges between different life experiences,” says Niels van Deurs, who is responsible for school projects within The Why Foundation. He explains that they try to create space where students can ask questions and have the chance to engage with the issue instead of just telling “young people what they should think”.

At the end of the screening, there is some impatient wriggling, but also many questions. Is Pasha still alive? What happened to his mum and the students in the movie? When do you start learning this propaganda?  These questions are directed at a debate guest. Katya Kize left Moscow after the full-scale invasion started in 2022 and helped with communication between Talankin and the U.S. director. She calmly explains that Pasha now lives in the Czech Republic and anyone shown in the documentary was not imprisoned because they were not aware of the filming.

The Why Foundation says it runs similar screenings in 25 Danish cities, deliberately reaching beyond Copenhagen — by its own count, some 7,000 Danish students saw its documentaries in 2024. The same films, translated, circulate as far as Ghana, Uganda and Georgia.

“They take democracy for granted, luckily”

To assess the impact of the programme, we talk to teachers right after the movie. “They take democracy for granted, luckily, but it is important for them to see why Russians react like this to the war”, says Hallgeir Stølen-Bosse, a history teacher who brought the ninth graders to the cinema. Hallgeir comments on the character who is the most devoted to spreading Kremlin’s narrative – also a history teacher: “This history teacher was not shouting at them; he was nice, and they liked him. And that’s dangerous.”

What about the students though? We ask Hallgeir and his colleague, German teacher, Kristine Jandorf a few days later. Teenagers were wondering about Pasha and his life after he left Russia. They were talking about the boys who didn’t know what war was, but were signing up for it. The scene of Russian students marching made some of them even smile since it felt so absurd from their perspective. Both Hallgeir and his colleague Kristine agree that teaching is a civic duty. They want to show their students what is happening outside Denmark and help them to see it critically.

When Kayta answers students about learning propaganda, she mentions Putin’s speech where he says that “teachers win wars not soldiers”. In her view, this doesn’t mean that young people would have to learn propaganda word by word, but that they are taught and convinced that they don’t have any other choice than to live like this.

The children shown in the film might not be as different from the ones who were sitting in the cinema this morning. But young Copenhagers are free. And it was once again the teachers who decided to remind them.