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"Mr. Nobody Against Putin"

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  Culture | Back Story An Oscar-nominated documentary goes behind enemy lines “Mr Nobody Against Putin” takes on patriotism, propaganda and the limits of sympathy Save Share Photograph: Made in Copenhagen/Pink Productions Mar 6th 2026 | 4 min read Listen to this story W hen suffering  is abundant, compassion can be scarce—especially for countries that inflict the pain. “Mr Nobody Against Putin”, a documentary that won a  BAFTA  and is up for an  Oscar  on March 15th, is ostensibly a study in propaganda and patriotism. Its real power, however, comes from its approach to a perennial challenge: whether and how to elicit sympathy for people on the wrong side. A town of 10,000 souls in the Ural mountains, Karabash squats like a prison camp amid straggly birch trees, slag heaps and smokestacks. Its Soviet-era apartment blocks have rickety balconies and exposed pipework. Snows thaw to reveal rutted roadways and cracked concrete. Life expectancy is dismal. It is a...
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Robert Pinsky, The Art of Poetry

  Paris Review - Robert Pinsky, The Art of Poetry No. 76 Robert Pinsky , The Art of Poetry No. 76 Interviewed by  Ben Downing  &  Daniel Kunitz Issue 144, Fall 1997   When Robert Pinsky was named Poet Laureate of the United States earlier this year, it felt deeply appropriate. To an unusual degree, Pinsky has mulled, both on the page and off, over the relationship between American civic and private life. Although far from jingoistic, he’s an unabashed patriot who embodies many of our more attractive national traits: ingenuity, open-mindedness, a certain stalwart optimism. His second volume is called  An Explanation of America , and where Pinsky once helped poets make sense of their country, it’s safe to guess that he’ll now prove just as good at spurring the country to take stock of its verse; the art couldn’t find a more effective advocate. Among the endeavors he’s undertaken is his “say a poem” project, whose purpose, Pinsky writes, “is to create an a...
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