German airline Lufthansa misplaced the Oscar statuette belonging to award-winning Russian filmmaker Pavel Talankin after he was forced to check the trophy on a flight from the United States, his co-director said Thursday.
Talankin and American filmmaker David Borenstein won the 2026 Oscar for Best Documentary for “Mr. Nobody Against Putin.” The film, composed of footage Talankin shot and smuggled out of Russia, chronicles the state indoctrination of schoolchildren following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
According to Borenstein, U.S. Transportation Security Administration agents insisted that Talankin check the gold-plated statuette into the plane’s cargo hold, allegedly claiming the heavy award “could be used as a weapon” in the cabin.
“It never arrived in Frankfurt,” Borenstein wrote in a post on Instagram. Underneath the post, Lufthansa’s official account commented that the airline “will do everything we can to find the Oscar as fast as possible.”
Borenstein expressed indignation over the incident, questioning whether a high-profile Western actor would have faced the same scrutiny as Talankin.
“Would Pavel have been treated the same way if he were a famous actor? Or a fluent English speaker?” he asked in a message directed at the TSA.
Russia has reacted strongly to the success of “Mr. Nobody Against Putin,” banning its distribution for its negative portrayal of the country and designating Talankin as a “foreign agent.”
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