Maidan
Description
In Maidan, the camera remains mostly still. Very long shots capture people singing, making sandwiches and sleeping during what at times seems to be a carnival. But this is no carnival. An invisible announcer warns of snipers. Riot police in protective gear, with shields, helmets and visors lowered, move in to attack. Sergei Loznitsa’s film is not a standard journalistic report about civil riots in Kiev’s Maidan square. There are no talking heads and no voiceover, only the occasional intertitle to act as a timeline for the history erupting onscreen. Loznitsa (director of Festival favorites My Joy and In the Fog) structures his narrative solely through a montage that appears very simple at first glance, but one that grows expansive as the film builds into an epic. There is not a single close-up. This is not a film about leaders or heroes. But from this motley plethora of faces emerges a composite portrait of those who came to Maidan. —Mikhail Lemkhin
Sergei Loznitsa was born in 1964 in Belarus, and graduated from Ukraine Polytechnic Institute. From 1987 to 1991, he worked in the field of artificial intelligence at the Kiev Institute of Cybernetics. In 1991, Loznitsa entered the Russian State Institute of Cinematography in Moscow. Since 2000, he has worked at the Studio of Documentary Films in St. Petersburg. Currently, he resides in Germany. Loznitsa has made over 20 documentary films, many of which received awards at various international film festivals. His debut feature My Joy (2011 SFIFF) was part of the Official Selection at the Cannes Film Festival. His second feature In the Fog (2013 SFIFF) was also part of Official Selection in Cannes and was awarded the FIPRESCI Prize.
Trailer
//player.vimeo.com/video/122129424?autoplay=1Film Details
Language Ukrainian
Year 2014
Runtime 133
Country Ukraine/Netherlands
Director Sergei Loznitsa
Producer Sergei Loznitsa, Maria Choustova-Baker
Editor Sergei Loznitsa, Danielius Kokanauskis
Cinematographer Serhiy Stefan Stetsenko, Sergei Loznitsa, Mykhailo Yelchev