Ukrainian director Sergei Loznitsa’s filmography could be neatly divided into three genre buckets: feature films (the last two were Donbass and A Gentle Creature, both from the last decade), documentaries compiled entirely from archive sources (The Kiev Trial), and documentaries about current events, filmed by Loznitsa himself and small crews. The most well-known example from the last category would be Maidan (2014), a stirring, astringent, mosaic-like portrait of the demonstrations against Russian-supported president Viktor Yanukovych in Kiev’s main city square in 2013-14, which eventually devolved into violence.
With his latest, The Invasion, Loznitsa gives Maidan a cinematic sibling, a work that bears a strong family resemblance given its urgency and majestic, tragic sweep as it builds a portrait of a nation at war. But while the high-vérité lack of voiceover, identifying subtitles or editorializing follows the same modus operandi deployed with Maidan, there’s an even stronger sense here...
With his latest, The Invasion, Loznitsa gives Maidan a cinematic sibling, a work that bears a strong family resemblance given its urgency and majestic, tragic sweep as it builds a portrait of a nation at war. But while the high-vérité lack of voiceover, identifying subtitles or editorializing follows the same modus operandi deployed with Maidan, there’s an even stronger sense here...
- 5/18/2024
- by Leslie Felperin
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Detailing Lithuania’s attempts to break away from the Soviet Union, from protests in 1989 to Vilnius’ Bloody Sunday in 1991, when Soviet troops attempted to stage a coup, Sergei Loznitsa became interested in the man in the midst of it all: Vytautas Landsbergis, the first Head of Parliament of Lithuania after its independence declaration.
“I started this project with a simple question: ‘Why nobody in Lithuania filmed him before?’ He is such a great man, great storyteller,” says the helmer. “Mr. Landsbergis” was crowned as best film at IDFA, with Danielius Kokanauskis awarded for editing.
Recalling his 2015 film “The Event” on the 1991 August Coup in Moscow, Loznitsa argues that he doesn’t feel like “a foreigner” in Lithuania, the first country that took serious steps to destroy the Soviet Union. But a foreigner can sometimes say things the locals cannot, he observes, also because they haven’t noticed them.
“I was born in the Soviet Union.
“I started this project with a simple question: ‘Why nobody in Lithuania filmed him before?’ He is such a great man, great storyteller,” says the helmer. “Mr. Landsbergis” was crowned as best film at IDFA, with Danielius Kokanauskis awarded for editing.
Recalling his 2015 film “The Event” on the 1991 August Coup in Moscow, Loznitsa argues that he doesn’t feel like “a foreigner” in Lithuania, the first country that took serious steps to destroy the Soviet Union. But a foreigner can sometimes say things the locals cannot, he observes, also because they haven’t noticed them.
“I was born in the Soviet Union.
- 11/28/2021
- by Marta Balaga
- Variety Film + TV
‘Mr. Landsbergis’ Wins At IDFA
Documentary festival IDFA has unveiled its award winners for this year, with Sergei Loznitsa’s Mr. Landsbergis winning Best Film. Elsewhere, Diem Ha Le won Best Directing for Children Of The Mist, Danielius Kokanauskis won Best Editing for Mr. Landsbergis, and Ruslan Fedotow won Best Cinematography for Where Are We Headed. Click here to see the full list of winners from the festival’s various competitions on IDFA’s website.
Sreyashii Sengupta joins Continental Entertainment
Singapore-based media and entertainment firm Continental Entertainment, which specializes in distributing Indian movies and TV in Asian markets, has named Sreyashii Sengupta as CEO for Southeast Asia. Sreyashii previously led Darpan Global for more than a decade and has distributed 95 movies during her career. She is also an ambassador of the Asian Academy Creative Awards, supported by The Infocomm and Media Development Authority (Imda) Singapore, for the territories of India,...
Documentary festival IDFA has unveiled its award winners for this year, with Sergei Loznitsa’s Mr. Landsbergis winning Best Film. Elsewhere, Diem Ha Le won Best Directing for Children Of The Mist, Danielius Kokanauskis won Best Editing for Mr. Landsbergis, and Ruslan Fedotow won Best Cinematography for Where Are We Headed. Click here to see the full list of winners from the festival’s various competitions on IDFA’s website.
Sreyashii Sengupta joins Continental Entertainment
Singapore-based media and entertainment firm Continental Entertainment, which specializes in distributing Indian movies and TV in Asian markets, has named Sreyashii Sengupta as CEO for Southeast Asia. Sreyashii previously led Darpan Global for more than a decade and has distributed 95 movies during her career. She is also an ambassador of the Asian Academy Creative Awards, supported by The Infocomm and Media Development Authority (Imda) Singapore, for the territories of India,...
- 11/26/2021
- by Tom Grater
- Deadline Film + TV
This is not the only film that features Stalin's interment. Though one wonders if internment might be more accurate. Such is the volume of pomp and ceremony dedicated to demonstrating that he was actually dead.
State Funeral is not rushed, but it feels trite to call it elegiac. It is a monumental assemblage, both before and behind the camera. Sergei Loznitsa writes, directs, Danielius Kokanauskis deserves plaudits as editor. There are some 160 credited Directors of Photography. I say 'some' as even on the big screen my count was not more accurate than perhaps 23 rows in each of 8 columns.
The title is State Funeral but it's a very particular version of 'State'. The Russian title is, after some research, using the same root of 'state' that informs 'state-owned', 'governmental standard'. It might be nothing, but the word means different things in English depending on how it is capitalised and...
State Funeral is not rushed, but it feels trite to call it elegiac. It is a monumental assemblage, both before and behind the camera. Sergei Loznitsa writes, directs, Danielius Kokanauskis deserves plaudits as editor. There are some 160 credited Directors of Photography. I say 'some' as even on the big screen my count was not more accurate than perhaps 23 rows in each of 8 columns.
The title is State Funeral but it's a very particular version of 'State'. The Russian title is, after some research, using the same root of 'state' that informs 'state-owned', 'governmental standard'. It might be nothing, but the word means different things in English depending on how it is capitalised and...
- 7/16/2021
- by Andrew Robertson
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
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