A 121-minute 2018 film directed by Sergei Loznitsa. Presented at the opening in the Un Certain Regard selection at the 71st Cannes Film Festival and Winner of Best Director. Certainly a film that fully expresses the inner meaning that “Un Certain Regard” seeks in the works presented in competition. The director contemplates with “a particular look”, a different perspective, events sometimes reckless, mostly unknown and so involved, indissolubly uniting human dynamics, distorted by a deep malaise that over time worsens more and more and the progressive Loss of each individual increases rule of conduct. So it’s a journey through the chaos that reigns in the Donbass region in the Donec Basin of eastern Ukraine. A fictional image inspired by real events between 2014 and 2015, full of characters of different kinds, divided into a mosaic of 13 snappy episodes, differing in facts but aligned by the underlying dynamic in which the rules of the civilization are compromised. In a frigid climate dominated by a perpetually leaden sky, Loznitsa masterfully crafts a dramatically real feature film that blends truth with improbability. A tragic and satirical portrayal of a socially torn country where you can no longer trust each other, where no one comes out clean and where everyone is making the worst of themselves and showing us how much cynicism the media and television are . With the omnipotence of new technology, they mix up events to change the facts only in favor of the spectacular. With great clarity, the director analyzes the human dynamics, now deteriorated and distorted, to be sought in deep roots so complicated that it is impossible to restore a civil and moral order. A relentless political-social and anti-militarist criticism, accompanied by a subtly biting and grotesque humor that sometimes turns into black comedy. It is all against all in a general chaos that has raged for eight years, a daily hell that few of us knew prior to the recent and momentous events that have Russia and Ukraine in direct conflict. A Kafkaesque film that has the merit of showing, albeit through episodes portrayed as if in a cruel distorted mirror, that what is happening today has very distant origins and motives very difficult to understand. More difficult and complex than the many messages will ever explain. Technically, the director proves he knows how to do his job well, alternating handheld wartime reportage-style shots, suggestive stills and long, well-constructed sequences, combined with excellent vivid photography and meticulous and rare off-screen work -Sound succeeds in immersing the viewer more and more in the atmosphere and in the heart of the situation.
[di Federico Mels Colloredo]