DONBASS
O.V. in Ukrainian and Russian subtitled in Spanish and English
If Loznitsa had wanted to do a caricature of the conflict in Donbass (the pro-Putin factions vs. the Ukrainian nationalists) it wouldn’t have turned out as bizarrely horrifying. Because although it seems like a lie, his strategy here was to recreate in fiction a series of domestic videos about the subject. A parade of comic strips about patriotism, hysteria, violence and bureaucracy: from the wedding of a couple of nationalists to the blatant theft of humanitarian aid by the authorities, or to the gibberish with which they requisition a businessman’s car. Best Direction Award at the Un Certain Regard section in Cannes.
Direction: Sergei Loznitsa
Script: Sergei Loznitsa
Cinematography: Oleg Mutu
Editing: Danielius Kokanauskis
Sound: Vladimir Golovnitski
Cast: Boris Kamorzin, Valeriu Andriuta, Tamara Yatsenko, Liudmila Smorodina, Olesya Zhurakovskaya
Production Company: Ma.ja.de. Fiction, Arthouse Traffic, JBA Production, Graniet Film, Wild at Art, Digital Cube.
Sergei Loznitsa
Born in 1964 in the Republic of Belaru, Loznitsa grew up in Kiev, graduating first in Mathematics and later from the Russian Institute of Cinematography in Moscow. Since his debut in 1996 he has directed twenty films, winning international recognition and awards at festival such as Cannes, Karlovy Vary, Oberhausen, Jihlava and DocLisboa, among others. He offers one of the sharpest, most intelligent views on the present and past of the Soviet question. His latest films have been programmed at the Seville Festival where in 2015 he won the Best Film Award in the New Waves Non Fiction section with The Event. In 2018 he released the films Victory day, Donbass (Best Film Award in Un Certain Regard) and The Trial in Berlin, Cannes and Venice respectively.