Two Prosecutors
In a dry and darkly humorous depiction of idealism in the midst of Stalin’s Great Terror, a young prosecutor and an imprisoned Bolshevik meet.
In his fifth fictional feature, Ukrainian master Sergei Loznitsa portrays Stalin’s purges. Based on Georgi Demidov’s novel, the film follows newly graduated prosecutor Kornyev as he goes to meet a prisoner in the midst of the Great Terror. The Bolshevik, beaten to half-dead, and the young idealist both share faith in the Communist system. Kornyev must report the abuses to state prosecutor Vyshinsky. An invalid Bolshevik storyteller on a train also clings to his belief in the revolution. Yet those in power see through the flimsy veil of appearances. In a chilling way, the audience comes to share their sense of humour.
Loznitsa is known for his documentaries, in which archival footage has revealed truths about, for example, Stalin’s show trials (The Trial, 2018). The same keen eye is present in Two Prosecutors’ sparse, slow-paced scenes. The camera remains still, drawing images both revolting and poetic: the marks of torture, a burning heap of unanswered pleas for help, and citizens sleepwalking through the Palace of Justice.
This chilly depiction of Stalinism is a confident statement, much like the director’s public interventions. At the film’s premiere in Cannes, Loznitsa remarked on the emerging kinship between Putin’s Russia and Trump’s United States.
Justus Pitkänen (translated by Kati Ilomäki)