Бабий Яр. Контекст
Sergei Loznitsa
Netherlands, Ukraine | 2021 | 121 min
Languages : Ukrainian, Russian
Subtitles : French, English
On 29 and 30 September 1941, the Einsatzgruppen, assisted by Ukrainian auxiliaries, slaughtered 30,771 Jews in a ravine near Kyiv, in full view of the local population. Loznitsa uses previously unseen archival footage of the German occupation of Ukraine and the following decade to reconstruct the context of the largest mass shooting of the Holocaust.
On 29 and 30 September 1941, the Einsatzgruppen, assisted by Ukrainian police auxiliaries, shot 33,771 Jews in the Babi Yar ravine, northwest of Kiev, with no resistance from the local population. It is this indifference that Loznitsa seeks to explore in Babi Yar. Context - Special Jury Prize of the L’Oeil d’Or at the 2022 Festival de Cannes. Not to understand it, so much as to revive the memory of this event, erased just like the ravine itself, which was filled in with industrial waste in 1952 to make way for buildings. His film uses a montage of archival footage of the German occupation of Ukraine and the following decade to reconstruct the context of the largest mass shooting of the Holocaust. The subtle sound design gives way to the silent rush of the wind over still (colour) images shot at the site of the massacre – half-buried bodies, shoes, a prosthetic leg separated from its owner. Shortly thereafter, Hans Frank, Governor-General of Poland, pays a visit to Kiev. A grand parade takes place with marching music, as the city celebrates him. “Chilling” seems a woefully inadequate word to describe the emotion evoked by these images of popular jubilation, set against the knowledge that tens of thousands of human beings have just been slaughtered.
Emmanuel Chicon
Emmanuel Chicon
Champ de Mars, 2026
Two Prosecutors, 2025Paleontology lesson, 2025L'Invasion, 2024The Kiev Trial, 2022The Natural History of Destruction, 2022Mr. Landsbergis, 2021Babi Yar. Contexte, 2021A Night at the Opera, 2020State Funeral, 2019The Trial, 2018Reflections, 2018Donbass, 2018A Gentle Creature, 2017Austerlitz, 2016The Event, 2015The Old Jewish Cemetery, 2015Bridges of Sarajevo, 2014Maidan, 2014The Letter, 2013The Miracle of Saint Anthony, 2012In the Fog, 2012My Joy, 2010Northern Light, 2008Revue, 2008Artel, 2006Blockade, 2006Factory, 2004Landscape, 2003The Settlement, 2002Portrait, 2002The Train Stop, 2000
Life, Autumn, 1998
Today We Are Going To Build A House, 1996
Two Prosecutors, 2025Paleontology lesson, 2025L'Invasion, 2024The Kiev Trial, 2022The Natural History of Destruction, 2022Mr. Landsbergis, 2021Babi Yar. Contexte, 2021A Night at the Opera, 2020State Funeral, 2019The Trial, 2018Reflections, 2018Donbass, 2018A Gentle Creature, 2017Austerlitz, 2016The Event, 2015The Old Jewish Cemetery, 2015Bridges of Sarajevo, 2014Maidan, 2014The Letter, 2013The Miracle of Saint Anthony, 2012In the Fog, 2012My Joy, 2010Northern Light, 2008Revue, 2008Artel, 2006Blockade, 2006Factory, 2004Landscape, 2003The Settlement, 2002Portrait, 2002The Train Stop, 2000
Life, Autumn, 1998
Today We Are Going To Build A House, 1996
Screenings and tickets
Thursday 23 April 2026 15:30
Usine à Gaz 1, Nyon
Screenplay
Sergei Loznitsa
Editing
Sergei LoznitsaDanielius KokanauskisTomasz Wolski
Sound
Vladimir Golovnitski
Production
Sergei LoznitsaMaria Choustova
