Archive of films Maidan / Maidan

Netherlands / Ukraine
2014, 133 min

Section: Documentary Films - Out of Competition
Year: 2014

"Maidan is the first film in my rather long documentary career, when I actually had to follow the events of ‘real life’ as they were unfolding,” remarked the veteran director on his authentic report from the streets of Kiev. Using long, almost exclusively static shots, he communicates the gravity of the endlessly drawn out days during which Maidan became home to hundreds of thousands of ordinary Ukrainians.

Synopsis

When late last year the eyes of the entire world were fixed upon Ukraine, veteran director Sergei Loznitsa set aside the projects he was working on and, in anticipation of future events, quickly set out for Kiev. He was able to capture the first week of protests when the air was filled with solidarity and harmony, as well as the sinister chill of later bloody street fighting. Without offering action or heroism, he charts the course of the uprising in long, almost exclusively static shots. As he stated: "Maidan is the first film in my rather long documentary career, when I actually had to follow the events of ‘real life’ as they were unfolding.” The intensity of this authentic documentary report, which screened at Cannes, comes from the surgical precision with which Loznitsa stitches together the understated individual microdramas. By means of captivating images, he communicates to the viewer the gravity of the endlessly drawn out days during which Maidan became home to hundreds of thousands of ordinary Ukrainians.

About the director

Sergei Loznitsa (b. 1964, Baranovichi, USSR) grew up in Kiev and graduated in applied mathematics from Kiev Polytechnic (1987). In 1987-91 he worked on the development of artificial intelligence. In 1997 he graduated from Moscow’s Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography (VGIK) and began producing his first documentary films in St. Petersburg. Since 2001 he has lived in Germany. Several of his documentaries have screened at the Karlovy Vary IFF, with Portrait earning him a Special Jury Mention in 2003 and Artel taking Best Documentary under 30 Minutes in 2007. His movies have won prizes at festivals in Oberhausen, Leipzig, and Kraków, and have played around the world. Karlovy Vary audiences have also seen the features My Joy (Schastye moe, 2010) and In the Fog (V tumane, 2012), both shown in competition at Cannes, the latter winning the FIPRESCI Prize. Loznitsa is currently working on another drama entitled Babi Yar.

Contacts

ATOMS & VOID
Brugsestraat, 20, 2587 XS, Hague
Netherlands
Tel: +31 611 006 099
E-mail: [email protected]

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About the film

Color, DCP

Section:	Documentary Films - Out of Competition

Director:	Sergei Loznitsa
Screenplay:	Sergei Loznitsa
Dir. of Photography:	Serhiy Stefan Stetsenko, Sergei Loznitsa, Mykhailo Yelchev
Editor:	Sergei Loznitsa, Danielius Kokanauskis
Producer:	Sergei Loznitsa, Maria Choustova-Baker
Production:	Atoms & Void BV
Contact:	ATOMS & VOID

Guests

Serhiy Stetsenko

Director of Photography