Донбас
Sergei Loznitsa
Germany, Ukraine, France, Netherlands, Romania | 2018 | 121 min
Languages : Ukrainian, Russian
Subtitles : French, English
Since 2014, pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainians have been clashing in Donbass. For this fourth fiction film, Sergei Loznitsa creates thirteen sequences using videos posted on YouTube that document daily life in this occupied territory. With razor-sharp precision, his film brilliantly reveals the grotesque and tragic unleashed by this hybrid war.
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
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
Sunday 19 April 2026 10:45
Usine à Gaz 1, Nyon
In the presence of the director
Trailer
Screenplay
Sergei Loznitsa
Photography
Oleg Mutu
Editing
Danielius Kokanauskis
Sound
Vladimir Golovnitski
Production
Heino Deckert
