Meryl Streep and Oscar-winning filmmaker Laura Poitras have joined as executive producers on *My Undesirable Friends: Part II – Exile*, the follow-up to director Julia Loktev's acclaimed 2024 documentary about independent Russian journalists. The new film will premiere at the Venice Film Festival before screening at the New York Film Festival and later reaching theatres and the Mubi streaming platform, marking a high-profile endorsement for a project documenting press freedom under Vladimir Putin's regime.

The documentary follows a group of young journalists branded "foreign agents" by the Kremlin, who are forced to flee Moscow after Putin shuts down independent media following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Loktev tracks the reporters across a dozen countries over four years as they continue reporting on their homeland's war crimes despite being labelled terrorists and facing death threats. Both Streep and Poitras issued statements praising Loktev's intimacy and courage as a filmmaker, while the first instalment, *The Last Air in Moscow*, previously won best documentary honours from the Gotham Awards and several major critics' circles.