THE INVASION
THE INVASION
As of August 24, 2022, a day on which Ukraine marked 31 years of independence, Sergei Loznitsa started sending small film crews across his invaded homeland. For a year, they filmed everyday life during the war: funerals, a wedding, Christmas in the snow, classes held in basements and destroyed prefab buildings in which, absurdly, in one nothing but a wallpapered wall remains intact, and in another a kitchen with a refrigerator.
In these images, devoid as they are of commentary, the film-maker succeeds in providing an oppressive yet never hopeless, richly layered view of a country in a constant state of war. Attitudes towards the Russian language and culture are particularly revealing: In a long sequence, formerly revered Russian-language books by Dostoyevsky and Gorky, as well as by the exiled Boris Akunin, are shredded, along with Russian-language translations of authors such as Jack London and André Malraux. Incidentally, the ARTE media library currently contains a five-hour, 28-part extended version of the film, about which Loznitsa reflected in an interview that: "the invasion is like a virus that penetrates our system. War is a mental illness. Healthy people, healthy societies don't know war."
Text: Jörg Taszman
Thu 06.11. I 10:15 I WELTSPIEGEL SAAL 2 I original version with English and German subtitles
Sat 08.11. I 12:45 I WELTSPIEGEL SAAL 2 I original version with English and German subtitles
(pre-film: PALEONTOLOGY LESSON)
Квитки / Tickets:
https://www.filmfestivalcottbus.de/de/programm/sektionen/movie/2667.html
Sergei Loznitsa
Piotr Pawlus, Evgeny Adamenko
Vladimir Golovnitski
Fabrice Puchault, Rasha Salti
Sergej Loznitsa - Sergei Loznitsa was born on September 5th 1964. He grew up in Kiev (Ukraine), and in 1987 graduated from the Kiev Polytechnic with a degree in Applied Mathematics. In 1987-1991 Sergei worked as a scientist at the Kiev Institute of Cybernetics, specializing in artificial intelligence research. In 1997 Loznitsa graduated from the Russian State Institute of Cinematography (VGIK) in Moscow, where he studied feature filmmaking.
Sergei Loznitsa has been making films since 1996, and by now he has directed 25 award-winning documentaries and 4 fiction films.
Loznitsa’s feature debut “MY JOY” (2010) premiered in the main competition at the Festival de Cannes, and was followed by the feature film “IN THE FOG” (2012), which was awarded FIPRESCI prize at the 65th Festival de Cannes. In 2017, Sergei Loznitsa presented his third feature “A GENTLE CREATURE” in the competition of the Festival de Cannes. In 2018, Loznitsa received the prize for Best Directing of the Un Certain Regard section of Festival de Cannes for his fourth feature film, “DONBASS”. In 2013 Sergei Loznitsa founded a film production company ATOMS & VOID. Sergei Loznitsa’s feature-length documenatry “MAIDAN” (2014), the chronicles of the Ukrainian revolution, had its world premiere at a Séance Special of Festival de Cannes. His subsequent feature length documentaries, “THE EVENT” (2015), “AUSTERLITZ” (2016), “THE TRIAL” (2018) and “STATE FUNERAL” (2019) were presented at the Special Screenings of the Venice Film Festival. In 2021 Sergei received a Special Jury Prize of the L’Oeil D’Or Award in Cannes for his film “BABI YAR. CONTEXT”. Sergei Loznitsa continues to work on both documentary and fiction projects.
