Donbass – Films – Visions du Réel

Донбас

Sergei Loznitsa
Deutschland, Ukraine, Frankreich, Niederlande, Rumänien | 2018 | 121 min
Sprachen : Ukrainisch, Russisch
Untertitel : Französisch, Englisch

Seit 2014 liefern sich prorussische Separatisten und Ukrainer im Donbass heftige Kämpfe. Für seinen vierten Spielfilm hat Sergei Loznitsa in dreizehn Seuquenzen auf YouTube gepostete Videos rekonstruiert, die den Alltag in diesem besetzten Gebiet dokumentieren. Brillant und mit messerscharfer Präzision enthüllt der Film das Groteske und Tragische, das dieser hybride Krieg mit sich bringt.

With this fourth fiction film, Sergei Loznitsa creates thirteen sequences to present the mundane barbarity into which eastern Ukraine sank immediately after the pro-European revolution, of which Maidan Square was the epicentre. From April 2014 until the outbreak of the invasion, the Donbass was the scene of a hybrid conflict, combining armed open warfare with the mafia-like practices of pro-Russian separatist gangs backed by the Russian army. Seven episodes of Donbass are directly inspired by amateur videos filmed in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, posted to YouTube and re-enacted. For example, the public lynching of a man wrapped in a Ukrainian flag by a baying crowd; even more unsettling, the wedding ceremony of a separatist couple with a grotesque, almost Felliniesque quality – all these sequences are filmed with mostly amateur actors, and as close as possible to the combat zone. Oscillating between tragicomic absurdity and sheer horror, the Ukrainian filmmaker delivers a scathing critique of the widespread corruption of Putin’s Russia, coupled with a powerful meditation on the post-truth era.

Emmanuel Chicon

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