America edges toward authoritarianism

A critical look at a documentary about Russias press crackdown and its echoes in the United States.

America edges toward authoritarianism

Slate reviews Julia Loktev’s My Undesirable Friends Part I Last Air in Moscow, a five hour documentary that follows TV Rain and other journalists as Russia tightens foreign agent rules and presses them to reveal finances and loyalties. Loktev shoots largely on iPhones, creating intimate scenes that reveal fear and pressure without heavy narration. The film shows how ordinary life and political danger blur together, with journalists facing fines or exile while they try to keep reporting.
The review notes the documentary’s parallels to American media in a time of partisan divisions and corporate consolidation. It argues the film offers a warning: a society can look normal while its institutions drift toward repression. The characters debate whether to stay and document the truth or leave to preserve their work, a choice that echoes real concerns in many democracies today.

Loktev’s intimate approach uses small, quiet moments to show how fear can harden into routine. The absence of heavy captions and the choice to identify people by nicknames pull viewers into a world where risk feels close. The film becomes less a politics lesson and more a study of community, resilience, and the limits of dissent.
For American audiences, the film acts as a mirror rather than a map. It invites scrutiny of domestic pressures on the press, the lure of normal life under coercion, and the pull toward exile as a form of protest. Defending journalism, the piece suggests, requires more than sympathy; it requires action, solidarity, and norms that push back against the normalization of suppression.

Highlights

The fragility of truth demands more than pity; it requires sustained public backing and practical safeguards.