Latest news with #Loznitsa
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Sergei Loznitsa's ‘Two Prosecutors' Scores Fresh Deals For Coproduction Office
EXCLUSIVE: Sergei Loznitsa's drama Two Prosecutors, set against the backdrop of Stalin's Great Terror, has chalked up a fresh round of deals following its well-received world premiere in Competition at the Cannes Film Festival. Paris-based Coproduction Office has sealed new sales to Spain (Wanda Vision, Filmin), the Nordics and Iceland (Edge Entertainment), Poland (Aurora Films), Greece (Filmtrade) Turkey (Bir Film), Australia and New Zealand (Sharmill Films), Japan (Longride Inc.), Taiwan (Andrews Film), Hong Kong (Edko), India (Impact), Indonesia (Falcon Pictures), Brazil (Retrato Filmes), and Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay (Zeta Films). More from Deadline Janus Films Acquires Bi Gan's Cannes Prize-winner 'Resurrection' For North America Netflix Buys Richard Linklater's 'Breathless' Homage & Love Letter To Cinema 'Nouvelle Vague' In Record Domestic Deal For A French-Language Movie Breaking Baz @ Cannes: "Even If I'm Fired, I Stay," Declares Defiant Thierry Frémaux; Festival Victors Dance The Night Away After Strongest Selection In Years Previously announced deals include to Italy (Lucky Red), Portugal (Alambique), Czech Republic and Slovakia (Aerofilms), Hungary (Vertigo), Eastern Europe (HBO Europe), Estonia (Filmstop), ex-Yugoslavia, Israel (Lev) and Middle East (Falcon Films). The film was pre-acquired by Pyramide Distribution for France, which has set a September release, and Progress Film for Germany. Adapted from the eponymous novel by physicist and Gulag survivor Georgy Demidov, the film is set in the Soviet Union's era of Great Terror, or Great Purge, in the late 1930s, in which Joseph Stalin consolidated his power by either killing or incarcerating political opponents in harsh labor camps. The film focuses on a young prosecutor who sets out to challenge a system during this period after discovering a letter from a prisoner who is a desperate plea for help. Deadline critic Damon Wise noted the contemporary resonance of the story, calling the film 'a bleak warning from history' in his review, adding it held 'relevance to every country wrestling with authoritarian political parties right now.' The film is produced by Kevin Chneiweiss for France's SBS Productions, alongside Loznitsa's Netherlands-based banner Atoms & Void. Additional producers include Germany's Looks Film, Latvia's White Picture, Romania's Avanpost Media, and Lithuania's Studio Uljana Kim. SBS International is handling rights for the U.S. and U.K. Loznitsa, who is best known for his politically charged documentaries and strong fictional narratives, most recently presented his documentary The Invasion in the Special Screening Section at Cannes 2024. His past feature credits include My Joy (Cannes Competition 2010), In the Fog (Cannes Competition 2022), A Gentle Creature (Cannes Competition 2017) and Donbass (Best Director, Cannes Un Certain Regard 2018). Best of Deadline 'Hacks' Season 4 Release Schedule: When Do New Episodes Come Out? Everything We Know About 'Hacks' Season 4 So Far 'The Last Of Us': Differences Between HBO Series & Video Game Across Seasons 1 And 2
Hindustan Times
21-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Hindustan Times
Cannes Film Festival 2025 is all about looking at the present through the past
The loudest cheer at the 78th Cannes Film Festival was reserved for a new black and white movie about the making of a movie some 65 years ago. Nouvelle Vogue (New Wave) by American director Richard Linklater recreates the scenes of shooting legendary French filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard's debut feature film, Breathless, in 1960. Cleverly mixing Godard's radical ideas of filmmaking with famous quotes on art from great minds like Jean-Paul Sartre and Paul Gaugin, Nouvelle Vogue transports today's movie-goer to the middle of the last century, coinciding with an era of counterculture. Transporting the audience to the past is a unifying theme this year among filmmakers around the world. Nearly half of the movies in the prestigious competition category at the Cannes festival are set in the last century, dating back to times following the First World War, with subtle and sometimes stark warnings of learning from history. Consider these movies vying for the prestigious Palme d'Or in Cannes: The great purge by Josef Stalin against dissent in the erstwhile Soviet Union in 1937 is the story of Belarusian-born Sergie Loznitsa's Two Prosecutors. Sound of Falling by German director Mascha Schilinski, a frontrunner for the festival's top prize, is a dark story of servitude set in the years following the First World War. Folk songs, war, and relationships mingle in The History of Sound, by South African-born Oliver Hermanus, which begins in America in 1917. American director Wes Anderson's The Phoneocian Scheme, the story of a business family in the United States, is set in the 1950s. The Secret Agent by Brazilian Kleber Mendonça Filho is set in 1977 when Brazil was under the military regime. The backdrop of Fuori by Italian Mario Martone is Rome in the 1980s when three women forge a bond while serving time in prison. An art heist in Massachusetts in 1970 during the Vietnam War is the subject of American Kelly Reichardt's The Mastermind. Suburban Tokyo in 1987 is the setting for Japanese director Chie Hayakawa's new film, Renoir, which explores the troubled childhood of an 11-year-old witnessing the slow death of her father from cancer. As stories of the last century appear on the screen many times this year, it becomes overly evident that the filmmakers are trying to address the conflicts in the contemporary world. Explains Loznitsa, the director of Two Prosecutors, about his film relating the dark history of Stalin's terror to contemporary Russia. 'Unfortunately, these topics will remain relevant as long as there are totalitarian regimes in power anywhere in the world. None of the existing societies, no matter how advanced and democratic, are immune to authoritarianism and dictatorship. This is why I believe that the great purges of the 1930s still need to be studied and reflected upon.' "Of course, we can say that history is repeating itself," adds Loznitsa, whose previous work, The Invasion, on the war in Ukraine was part of the official selection in Cannes last year. "Times change, circumstances change and technology develops, but the outcome is always tragic. The temptation to achieve one's political goals by the simple and 'effective' means of violence, can prove to be irresistible to the ruling elites of even the most democratic and seemingly incorruptible countries," he adds. "Among several films related to past events in this year's Cannes selection, two different trends can be identified," says Jean-Michel Frodon, a former editor-in-chief of iconic French film magazine Cahiers du Cinéma, where French New Wave directors Godard, Claude Chabrol and François Truffaut were once critics. "One is strictly inscribed in the past, for instance, the fake, but accurate, fictional making of Breathless by Richard Linklater. It is not pretending to relate with the present, except if seen as providing a contrast effect with now, where similar major breakthroughs in the art of cinema are hardly to be found," says Frodon. "More significant are the films set in the past that actually address the present. Sergei Loznitsa makes it very clear that what is shown during the Stalinist terror in Two Prosecutors openly echoes the Putin regime today," says Frodon, a member of the Golden Peacock competition jury at the International Film Festival of India, Goa in 2009. The Secret Agent, directed by Kleber Mendoça Filho, mostly happens during the military dictatorship in Brazil in the 1970s, but a few contemporary scenes with a young woman researching these events that happened half a century before testify that the movie is even more about today than about history. The common theme of leaning to the past repeats itself in the festival's selection outside the competition category, too. Globally acclaimed Filipino filmmaker Lav Diaz goes back to the time of the colonisation of Asia by European powers in his new film, Magellan, part of the Cannes Premiere section. The film gives artistic insights into Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan's conquest and conversion, leading to mutiny and violence, and ultimately his death in the Philippines in 1521. Among other films exploring history are Turkish-origin German director Fatih Akin's Amrum set in the final months of the Second World War, Orwell: 2+2=5 by Haitian director Raoul Peck examining English novelist George Orwell's publication of his dystopian masterpiece Nineteen Eighty-Four in 1949 and the escape of Nazi doctor Josef Mengele in Russian director Kirill Serebrennikov's The Disappearance of Josef Mengele. "The fictional films set in the previous years, decades, or even centuries are more to enlighten the present than to escape from it," says Frodon. The Cannes Film Festival concludes on May 24.
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Ukraine's Loznitsa warns of danger of despots at Cannes
Ukrainian director Sergei Loznitsa's new film is a warning about despots -- and the danger of failing to spot them until it is too late. "Two Prosecutors", which premiered at the Cannes film festival on Wednesday, tells the story of an idealistic young prosecutor who takes up the case of a political prisoner languishing in one of Joseph Stalin's jails in the 1930s. "Don't be naive, that's the message to viewers, and to myself," Loznitsa told AFP of the plot to the Cannes darling's first feature in nearly a decade. Russia after 25 years of Vladimir Putin's rule resembles the Soviet Union, Loznitsa said, but his message also resonates at a time of backsliding in many democracies. "Russian society today is different from Soviet society in the 20th century, but the essence is the same," said the 60-year-old director. Asked whether he thought there was a danger of tyranny in the United States under President Donald Trump, he replied, "It could happen to any society." "There are people who have a real talent for making society bend to their deepest desires," he said. "Stalin was extremely talented at that." The Soviet leader, who used his purges to eliminate political enemies, is the subject of a new biopic announced in Cannes, "The Revolution According to Kamo", by the acclaimed Hungarian auteur Kornel Mundruczo. - Expulsion - Loznitsa has not been to Ukraine since 2021 and lives between Germany and Lithuania, but he told AFP that he hoped to return to his homeland to make a film one day. "I would like to do a film there but I don't know to what extent it's possible," he said ahead of the premiere of "Two Prosecutors", which is competing for the Palme d'Or top prize at Cannes. In 2022, Russian-speaking Loznitsa was ejected from the Ukraine Film Academy for criticising the country's policy of boycotting Russian films after Moscow's invasion of the same year. Leading Ukrainian intellectuals and other filmmakers have also denounced him despite his repeated condemnations of Russia's aggression since 2014 and his work recording it in documentaries such as "Donbass" and "The Invasion". His film "The Kiev Trial", a documentary about post-war trials in Ukraine of Nazis and their collaborators, provoked "not a single word in the Ukrainian press", he said. "On one hand, it's surprising to me, but on the other I understand why it happens. It's a result of the war that Russia is waging against Ukraine because in a situation like that, society becomes a lot more radical and a lot more cruel," he said. "But my situation is nothing, it's really very small compared to the suffering that many people are enduring there." While Loznitsa hopes to return to work in a peaceful Ukraine one day, he said he has little hope that ongoing peace negotiations will produce results. "Does Putin really want to put an end to his war? They have had the upper hand on the front lines for a long time now. I don't think he wants it to end," he said. adp/fg/sbk
France 24
15-05-2025
- Entertainment
- France 24
Ukraine's Loznitsa warns of danger of despots at Cannes
"Two Prosecutors", which premiered at the Cannes film festival on Wednesday, tells the story of an idealistic young prosecutor who takes up the case of a political prisoner languishing in one of Joseph Stalin's jails in the 1930s. "Don't be naive, that's the message to viewers, and to myself," Loznitsa told AFP of the plot to the Cannes darling's first feature in nearly a decade. Russia after 25 years of Vladimir Putin's rule resembles the Soviet Union, Loznitsa said, but his message also resonates at a time of backsliding in many democracies. "Russian society today is different from Soviet society in the 20th century, but the essence is the same," said the 60-year-old director. Asked whether he thought there was a danger of tyranny in the United States under President Donald Trump, he replied, "It could happen to any society." "There are people who have a real talent for making society bend to their deepest desires," he said. "Stalin was extremely talented at that." The Soviet leader, who used his purges to eliminate political enemies, is the subject of a new biopic announced in Cannes, "The Revolution According to Kamo", by the acclaimed Hungarian auteur Kornel Mundruczo. Expulsion Loznitsa has not been to Ukraine since 2021 and lives between Germany and Lithuania, but he told AFP that he hoped to return to his homeland to make a film one day. "I would like to do a film there but I don't know to what extent it's possible," he said ahead of the premiere of "Two Prosecutors", which is competing for the Palme d'Or top prize at Cannes. In 2022, Russian-speaking Loznitsa was ejected from the Ukraine Film Academy for criticising the country's policy of boycotting Russian films after Moscow's invasion of the same year. Leading Ukrainian intellectuals and other filmmakers have also denounced him despite his repeated condemnations of Russia's aggression since 2014 and his work recording it in documentaries such as "Donbass" and "The Invasion". His film "The Kiev Trial", a documentary about post-war trials in Ukraine of Nazis and their collaborators, provoked "not a single word in the Ukrainian press", he said. "On one hand, it's surprising to me, but on the other I understand why it happens. It's a result of the war that Russia is waging against Ukraine because in a situation like that, society becomes a lot more radical and a lot more cruel," he said. "But my situation is nothing, it's really very small compared to the suffering that many people are enduring there." While Loznitsa hopes to return to work in a peaceful Ukraine one day, he said he has little hope that ongoing peace negotiations will produce results. "Does Putin really want to put an end to his war? They have had the upper hand on the front lines for a long time now. I don't think he wants it to end," he said. © 2025 AFP
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Ukraine's Sergei Loznitsa on Cannes Competitor ‘Two Prosecutors' and Budding Trump-Putin Alliance: Totalitarian Threat ‘Looming on the Horizon'
Ukrainian director Sergei Loznitsa returns to the Cannes Film Festival with the gripping Soviet period drama 'Two Prosecutors,' marking the first time in nearly a decade that the celebrated filmmaker will compete for the Palme d'Or. The film world premieres in Competition on May 14. Set in a provincial Soviet town in 1937, at the height of Josef Stalin's reign of terror, Loznitsa's latest is a harrowing portrait of one man's powerlessness when confronting the ruthless machinery of a brutal, capricious state. More from Variety Film Factory Nabs Barcelona Attacks Thriller (EXCLUSIVE) Ukraine's Scores Deals on Slate Led by Live-Action Fantasy Feature 'Mavka. The True Myth,' Horror Film 'The Witch. Revenge' (EXCLUSIVE) Buzzy Sentient AI Thriller 'Hot Spot' From Agnieszka Smoczynska Finds French Distribution With The Jokers (EXCLUSIVE) It is a story, the director says, that finds chilling echoes in world events today, as Russian strongman Vladimir Putin clamps down on dissent amid his country's ongoing war in Ukraine, and as U.S. President Donald Trump flaunts his own authoritarian impulses with reckless disregard for the rule of law. 'Watching this story from the past, we also recognize the present,' Loznitsa tells Variety. 'It seems that we are returning to the time before the Second World War, and it's very sad. It's very regretful,' the director says. 'It seems that no lessons have been learned from the events that took place 80, 90 years ago. This is why I'm going back to this subject and showing just a tiny part of this totalitarian regime that seems to be coming back — the shadow of which is looming on the horizon.' 'Two Prosecutors' takes place during the Great Purge orchestrated by Stalin to consolidate his hold on the Communist Party. It follows Alexander Kornyev, a newly appointed prosecutor, who receives an anonymous letter written in blood on a scrap of cardboard. Its mysterious author is a political prisoner who pleads with the young prosecutor to investigate his case. Despite the efforts of local party apparatchiks to impede his investigation, Kornyev (Aleskandr Kuznetsov) manages to interview the man in prison, where his battered body bears evidence of torture at the hands of the dreaded Soviet secret police, the NKVD. A dedicated Bolshevik brimming with the idealism and integrity of youth, Kornyev sets out in search of justice for the prisoner — a journey that will take him to Moscow and the heart of Stalin's totalitarian regime. The film is adapted from a novella by Georgy Demidov, a scientist and political prisoner who spent 14 years in the Soviet gulags, later chronicling his experiences and documenting 'the Stalinist machine of repression in the Soviet Union,' according to Loznitsa. Written in 1969, at a time when even a casual reader would have risked running afoul of Soviet authorities, the unpublished manuscript was seized by the KGB, alongside the rest of Demidov's works, in 1980. Eight years later, following the author's death, the lost manuscripts were returned to the Demidov family at the request of his daughter, although 'Two Prosecutors' wouldn't be published until 2009. 'It's a story that waited 40 years [to be told],' says Loznitsa. 'Two Prosecutors' marks the director's return to fiction filmmaking after a nearly decade-long hiatus, since his black comedy 'Donbass' won the prize for best director in the Un Certain Regard section of the Cannes Film Festival in 2018. It is his third time competing for the Palme d'Or, following his feature debut, the road film 'My Joy' (2010), and the riveting Russia-set drama 'A Gentle Creature' (2017), with a series of highly regarded documentaries occupying the director in recent years. Loznitsa, who was born in modern-day Belarus and raised in Kyiv, returns to Cannes one year after screening 'The Invasion,' a documentary that chronicles scenes of daily life during the Russian war in Ukraine. The director, who left his homeland more than two decades ago, has seen little in recent world events to bolster his confidence in the end of a conflict that has raged for more than a thousand days, saying, 'I'm afraid at the moment, we're very far away from peace.' While President Trump has realigned U.S. foreign policy toward Moscow and strengthened ties with America's erstwhile bête noire in Putin, Loznitsa takes little solace in the prospect of a Trump-brokered peace deal. 'The events that unfolded in the past 100 days really surprised many people all over the world. And I think a lot of people were shocked by what's happening,' he says. 'One couldn't even imagine in a nightmare such a union, such an understanding between two authoritarian leaders. 'One of these leaders represents a country that is hurtling back toward Stalinism — a country that breaches international law, a country that wages wars with its neighbors,' he continues. 'And the other leader, who for us represents the country which has always been considered a fortress of democracy, that doesn't only proclaim the rule of law and human rights, but also a country that fights for human rights.' It is only a matter of time, he fears, before 'these two countries will become equal.' A product of the Cold War, Loznitsa grew up under the doctrine of mutually assured destruction, when the prospect of nuclear annihilation was just a midnight phone call or red button away. Having spent his filmmaking career chronicling mankind's worst impulses, he has a sobering perspective on the futility of human endeavors and our continued failure to learn from the lessons of the past. In the final years before the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Loznitsa worked as a scientist at the Kyiv Institute of Cybernetics, where he specialized in artificial intelligence research. Marking the technology's extraordinary gains, he again finds himself ruminating on an existential threat to humanity, and on the prospect of extinction. 'We know that once upon a time, dinosaurs walked the planet. Then they disappeared. But then new dinosaurs appeared,' he says. 'Life will find different forms. The fundamental flaw is that we assume ourselves as being omnipotent and super powerful. But in fact, from the point of view of nature, we're very weak. We, as humans, occupy a very tiny place in this enormous universe.' 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