Sergei Loznitsa’s ‘Two Prosecutors’ Brings Stalin-Era Terror to Cannes Film Festival

Sergei Loznitsa’s ‘Two Prosecutors’ Brings Stalin-Era Terror to Cannes Film Festival

It begins with a stove, a stack of desperate letters, and a man too old to protest his fate.

This is the first serious case of the competition: “Two Prosecutors”, by Sergei Loznitsa. It takes place in the 1937 USSR during the Stalinist Purgades. A left moment in history.

‘Two Prosecutors’ Review: Sergei Loznitsa Makes a Striking Return to Fiction Filmmaking in Chilling Fable Set Across Stalin’s Purges

This is a film about Russia, set in Russia, and made by a filmmaker educated there, yet it was produced by France, Germany, the Netherlands, Latvia, Romania, and Lithuania. And that is very apparent with the mass of production vanity plates prior to an opening shot (indeed, these international co-production methods are how worthy films are typically made). “Two Prosecutors”’ director Sergei Loznitsa claims Ukraine as the closest element of his p…

Sergei Loznitsa's film takes place in 1937 in Russia during the Stalinist purges. It resonates strongly in 2025.

In competition in Cannes, "Two Prosecutors" is the new film by Ukrainian director Sergei Loznitsa. The story of a lawyer, newly graduated, who discovers the horror of Stalinist purges in 1937. This implacable nightmare, which denounces the passivity of individuals in the face of totalitarianism, clearly echoes the current period. - Cannes 2025: with "Two Prosecutors", the Ukrainian Loznitsa goes back time to denounce the return of authoritarian …

The film of the post-Soviet filmmaker Sergei Loznitsa reconstructs the era of Stalinian purgations, the processes, the prison and the Moscow palaces of power