Sergei Loznitsa

Landscape

Sergei Loznitsa
Screening time  
01.03. / Friday, 20:00 - 22:00 Theatre 4  
"Landscape" opens on the small Russian town of Okulovka, which has seen better days.

Loznitsa’s camera moves past a dilapidated church, some wooden barns and a number of other old, towering edifices. The emptiness evokes grief and perhaps longing, though it’s hard to imagine what rosier past this community may have had. Finally, about 12 minutes in, he settles on a town square full of people waiting for the bus. The middle section of Landscape wanders through this crowd, slowly lingering on many faces but never stopping entirely. Bits of conversations come and go. The residents of Okulovka share memories of the past and doubts about the future, starting with whether the bus will show up on time, or at all. One woman tells a story about her alcoholic husband, another remembers meeting victims of the Chernobyl Disaster. Someone puts forth the wishful thought that the Chinese will save the local economy. For much of the film it seems as if these discussions are happening just off camera, in real time, but careful attention reveals a lack of synchronized sound. The landscape in Landscape is the people themselves. Their words, their winter clothes and their stoic, slightly frustrated faces, always aware of the camera, are the elements of Loznitsa’s palette.

Sergey

Sergei Loznitsa

Filmmaker, editor and screenwriter Sergey Loznitsa was born in 1964 in the city of Baranovitchi, in Belarus. At that time Belarus was part of the Soviet Union. Later Sergei’s family moved to Kiev, Ukraine, where he finished high school and in 1987 graduated with a degree in engineering and mathematics. From 1987 through 1991 Sergey was employed as a scientist at the Institute of Cybernetics. During that time, he developed a strong interest in cinematography, and in 1991 he was admitted to the Russian State Institute of Cinematography, in Moscow. He studied in the studio of Nana Dzhordzhadze and in 1997 graduated with honours with the major in movie production and direction. Loznitsa is considered an extremely multifaceted and productive director, his work includes short films, mid-length films and full-length films – all of them visually stunning and awarded with prizes right from the beginning of his career. Loznitsa is also hard to categorize in terms of film concept: he has presented numerous documentaries – wholly in the tradition of Russian avant-garde documentaries – as well as exemplary feature films. The content of his work ranges from contemporary history themes (including the Second World War, the Soviet era) all the way to everyday observations and portrayals of life in Russia today. His two feature films, My Joy (2010) and In the Fog (2012) had their world premieres at the Festival de Cannes, where In the Fog received the FIPRESCI prize. Loznitsa’s feature-length documentary Maidan (2014), dedicated to the Ukrainian Revolution, premiered at the Festival de Cannes and it was screened at 2015 ZagrebDox. Feature documentary film The Event (2015) revisits dramatic moments of August 1991 in the USSR, a failed coup d’étatattempt (known as Putsch) premiered at Venice Film Festival in 2015. Documentary Austerlitz (2016), nominated for the Best European documentary at European Film Awards 2017, is an observation of the visitors to a memorial site that has been founded on the territory of a former concentration camp. His 2018 documentary Donbass, set in eastern Ukraine where society begins to degrade as the effects of propaganda and manipulation begin to surface in this post-truth era, got Un Certain Regard – Directing Prize at last year's Cannes Film Festival. In 2018 Loznitsa presented two more documentary films: The Trial – archival chronicle of one of the infamous Moscow Trials – at the time, an operatic affair serving to legitimize Stalin’s government, now a timely reminder of the consequences of total authority, and Victory Day, an observational documentary that conveys the power of ideology and nostalgia as it captures the celebration of Victory Day at Berlin's Soviet War Memorial.

General sponsor

Landschaft

Germany
2003, 60'

Directed by:
Sergei Loznitsa

Screenplay by:
Sergei Loznitsa

Cinematography:
Pavel Kostomarov

Edited by:
Vladimir Golovnitski

Producer:
Heino Deckert

Produced by:
MA.JA.DE Filmproduktion

Festivals & Awards:

DOK Leipzig 2003 – Best Cinematography; Festival Filmer à tout prix 2003 – Grand Prix; Sibiu International Film Festival 2003 – Jury Award