Sergei Loznitsa – The Kiev Trial #Venezia79

September 5, 2022

Sergei Loznitsa - The Kiev Trial #Venezia79 fredfilmradio

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PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews Sergei Loznitsa, director of the documentary The Kiev Trial.

Ukrainian filmmaker Sergei Loznitsa joins us to talk about The Kiev Trial, his latest film, constructed entirely out of archive footage of the Kiev Nuremberg Trials of 1946. The film premiered out of competition at the 79th Venice International Film Festival, out of competition. The director talks about the specific historical moment that the film documents and also talks about how its significance, particularly in light of the ongoing Ukrainian War.

The Kiev Trial, also known as the ‘Kiev Nuremberg’, took place in January of 1946 in the Soviet Union, and was one of the first post-war trials convicting German Nazis and their collaborators. 15 criminals, guilty of atrocities, which were later identified by the Nuremberg trials as “crimes against humanity”, faced justice in case No.1679 “On the atrocities committed by fascist invaders on the territory of the Ukrainian SSR.” Using unique, previously unseen, archive footage, Sergei Loznitsa reconstructs key moments of the proceedings, including statements of the defendants and testimonies of the witnesses, survivors of Auschwitz and Babi Yar among them. The film lays bare the ‘banality of evil’ and is devastatingly relevant today, as Ukrainian people are once again being subjected to the violence of barbarian invaders.

Written by: fredfilmradio

Matt Micucci Out of Competition Sergei Loznitsa The Kiev Trial Venezia79