After presenting his documentary The Invasion about the war in Ukraine at last year’s festival, Sergei Loznitsa returns to Karlovy Vary with the feature drama Two Prosecutors, set in the USSR in 1937. The story follows a young prosecutor determined to expose violations in prisons, a story that remains relevant today.
Premiered at Cannes this year, the drama is based on a short story by Georgy Demidov, who was arrested in 1938 and spent 14 years in the Gulag. “He was able to describe the system theoretically, so his text is applicable far beyond the USSR. He also managed to capture the essence of life under totalitarian regime. In the story, he poses a question whether it is possible to fight the system from within, by its own rules,” the director said in a discussion with the audience when asked why he chose this particular story. Loznitsa has read all of Demidov’s work and hopes to adapt it in a film, focusing on the prisoners’ point of view.
Actor Alexander Kuznetsov, who plays the lead role, also attended the screening and offered advice to fellow actors in the audience not to focus on how many lines their character has, but on how much space they are given on screen. “You need to be seen, to have time to express your thoughts on screen,” said the actor, who is visiting KVIFF for the first time. Loznitsa, on the other hand, is attending the festival for the thirteenth and certainly not the last time.
