Событие
Sergei Loznitsa
Netherlands, Belgium | 2015 | 74 min
Language : Russian
Subtitles : French, English
Using previously unseen footage shot by Lenfilms studio operators in August 1991 during the failed coup led by communists hostile to perestroika, Loznitsa chronicles the “event” that would precipitate the fall of the USSR. But who are the people gathered in Palace Square in Leningrad, staring into the camera? Victors or victims?
The Event scarcely lived up to its name in Leningrad (recently renamed Saint Petersburg), which experienced from afar the five days of the state of emergency declared in Moscow by a group of conservatives opposed to perestroika in August 1991. Loznitsa uncovered entirely new footage shot by operators from the documentary unit of Lenfilm Studios during this crisis, which marked the beginning of the USSR’s dissolution. The sound design of the live-action footage combines reconstructed ambient sounds with radio broadcasts and speeches – those of Anatoly Sobchak, the city’s first elected mayor and a mentor to Putin, whose silhouette is seen slipping into a car. A counterpoint to “Maidan”, with which it is closely linked, the film depicts “in real time” the unfolding of these uncertain days, as people flood the streets determined to defend the threatened “democracy”. This is formally conveyed through fades to black accompanied by the Swan Lake theme, the ballet broadcast continuously by state television controlled by the coup plotters. It is at this very point that the true event is revealed, the trace of which the film preserves: the fleeting mobilisation of the ordinary citizen, who spontaneously decides to take his destiny into his own hands. Before the return to order.
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
Screenplay
Sergei Loznitsa
Photography
Vladimir GlazkovVadim DonetsVladimir DyakonovAlexander IvanovSergei LandoIgor PetrovLev RozhinVladimir Morozov
Editing
Danielius Kokanauskis
Sound
Vladimir Golovnitski
Production
Sergei LoznitsaMaria Choustova
