UA
  • News
  • Popular
  • Search
  • Apps
download white apps
Download

Two Prosecutors review – a petrifying portrait of Stalinist insurrection

www.theguardian.com
Thu, 15 May 2025 01:28:15 +0300
Two Prosecutors review – a petrifying portrait of Stalinist insurrection

Cannes film festival
Drawn from a suppressed story by gulag survivor Georgy Demidov, Sergei Loznitsa’s haunting film unravels a terrifying parable of bureaucratic evil

An icy chill of fear and justified paranoia radiates from this starkly austere and gripping movie from Sergei Loznitsa, set in Stalin’s Russia of the late 30s and based on a story by the dissident author and scientist Georgy Demidov, who was held in the gulag for 14 years during the second world war and harassed by the state until his death in the late 1980s.

The resulting movie, with its slow, extended scenes from single camera positions, mimics the zombie existence of the Soviet state and allows a terrible anxiety to accumulate: it is about a malign bureaucracy which protects and replicates itself by infecting those who challenge it with a bacillus of guilt. There is something of Dostoevsky’s The House of the Dead and also – with the appearance of two strangely grinning, singing men in a railway carriage – Kafka’s The Castle.

Loznitsa moreover allows us also to register that the wretched political prisoner of his tale is a veteran of Stalin’s brutal battle to suppress the Ukrainian nationalist Symon Petliura. And given the nightmarish claustrophobia and disorientation in the scenes in cells, official corridors, staircases and government antechambers, there is maybe a filmic footnote in the fact that Demidov worked for the scientist Lev Landau, the subject of Ilya Khrzhanovsky’s huge and deeply pessimistic multi-movie installation project Dau in 2020.

The first prosecutor of the title is Kornyev, played by Aleksandr Kuznetsov, an idealistic young lawyer, given a startlingly early promotion to a state prosecutor role – his beardless youth fascinates and irritates the grizzled old time-servers with whom he comes into contact.

He has received a bizarre “letter” from Stepniak (Aleksandr Fillipenko) an ageing and desperately ill high security prisoner in Bryansk – written in blood on a piece of torn cardboard (which has escaped the bonfire that prison authorities make of protest letters like these). The letter alleges that the security services, the NKVD, are without reference to the rule of law, using the prisons and judicial system to torture and murder an entire older generation of party veterans like him, to bring in a fanatically loyal but callow and incompetent cohort of Stalin loyalists.

The prison authorities make the politely persistent Kornyev wait hours before being allowed to visit Stepniak in his cell, transparently hoping he will just give up and go away – Loznitsa shows this weaponised inertia is the traditional official approach to petitioners everywhere in the Soviet Union.

Continue reading...
Read in full

Latest news

Journalist Yesypenko was released after more than four years in prison in Crimea.
Journalist Yesypenko was released after more than four years in prison in Crimea.
On June, Vladyslav Yesypenko, a journalist with the Ukrainian service of Radio Libertys Crimea.Realities project, was released from prison in Crimea and left the Russian-occupied peninsula.
censor.net
Mon, 23 Jun 2025 12:29:00 +0300
Office of Norwegian air defense system manufacturer Kongsberg Defence and Aerospace opens in Ukraine — Umerov
Office of Norwegian air defense system manufacturer Kongsberg Defence and Aerospace opens in Ukraine — Umerov
An office of the leading Norwegian arms manufacturer Kongsberg Defence and Aerospace, known in particular for its NASAMS systems, which are already used to protect Ukrainian cities from Russian mis...
en.interfax.com.ua
Mon, 23 Jun 2025 12:16:46 +0300
Ukraine's foreign minister in Brussels urges use of "all instruments" to force Putin to make peace
Ukraine's foreign minister in Brussels urges use of "all instruments" to force Putin to make peace
Russian leader Vladimir Putin responds to peace proposals with strikes on civilians, so now is the time to use every diplomatic tool to compel Russia to negotiate.Source Ukrainersquos Foreign M...
www.pravda.com.ua
Mon, 23 Jun 2025 12:14:00 +0300
Zelenskyy responded to Russia's cynical shelling of Ukraine's civilian infrastructure
Zelenskyy responded to Russia's cynical shelling of Ukraine's civilian infrastructure
Russia has struck a cynical blow against civilian Ukraine ZelenskyyThe head of state announced this on the morning of June .After the strikes on Irans nuclear program facilities, there w...
news.online.ua
Mon, 23 Jun 2025 12:06:00 +0300
Winter-Ready Pickled Cucumbers
Winter-Ready Pickled Cucumbers
Discover the art of preserving cucumbers for the winter with this easy and flavorful pickling recipe. By following these detailed steps, you can create crunchy, tangy pickles that will brighten up ...
toastpad.com
Mon, 23 Jun 2025 12:05:19 +0300
Destruction of bridge in Belgorod region by air strikes. VIDEO
Destruction of bridge in Belgorod region by air strikes. VIDEO
Ukrainian pilots destroyed a bridge in the Belgorod region of the Russian Federation with air strikes.
censor.net
Mon, 23 Jun 2025 12:03:00 +0300
Strawberry Vermouth Spritzer
Strawberry Vermouth Spritzer
This delightful cocktail merges the herbaceous notes of white vermouth with the effervescence of sparkling wine and the sweetness of fresh strawberries. Its an ideal drink for warm summer afternoo...
toastpad.com
Mon, 23 Jun 2025 12:00:20 +0300
Putin continues to believe that the Russian army will be able to capture four regions of Ukraine and win full-scale war, - US General Deptula
Putin continues to believe that the Russian army will be able to capture four regions of Ukraine and win full-scale war, - US General Deptula
The Russian command is still lying to Russian dictator Vladimir Putin about the successes of his army at the front.
censor.net
Mon, 23 Jun 2025 11:59:00 +0300
Russian strike on building in Shevchenkivskyi district of Kyiv: three people may be trapped under rubble. PHOTO
Russian strike on building in Shevchenkivskyi district of Kyiv: three people may be trapped under rubble. PHOTO
A search and rescue operation is underway at the site of an enemy attack in the Shevchenkivskyi district of Kyiv.
censor.net
Mon, 23 Jun 2025 11:42:00 +0300
French-Style Chicken Skillet
French-Style Chicken Skillet
This delightful French-inspired chicken dish is perfect for a cozy dinner. Featuring tender chicken pieces coated in a savory blend of spices and paired with fresh vegetables, this recipe offers a ...
toastpad.com
Mon, 23 Jun 2025 11:35:20 +0300
додати ще новини more news

Top news

NATO countries agree on 5% of GDP target for defence spending – Reuters, DPA
NATO countries agree on 5% of GDP target for defence spending – Reuters, DPA
Russia attacked a Ukrainian military training ground — there are dead and wounded
Putin declares ‘all of Ukraine is ours’ in latest blow to peace talks
Why Kellogg went to Lukashenko — insider information
US Senate makes urgent appeal to Trump after strikes on Iran
Iranian Parliament votes to close Strait of Hormuz: Rubio calls it "economic suicide"
Ukrainian defenders eliminated two Russian soldiers who were travelling on motorcycles. VIDEO
Preliminary, it was Iskander-M missile, - Sarantsev on Russian strike on Ukrainian training ground
Budanov gave Zelensky data on Russia's plans
Kremlin panics over US attack on Iran
  • About us
  • Contacts
  • Rules of use
  • Apps