This picture consists of a series of episodes that tell about almost a dozen stories about the life of the self-proclaimed “republics” in Donbass. A dishonest official robs a hospital. A confused foreign journalist tries to find the leader of a military detachment (obviously foreign), but no one wants to admit who exactly gives the orders. Cossacks organize lynching of one of their comrades for petty theft. At the same time, their atamans cleanse the local residents on a grand scale. In the middle of the street they carry out reprisals against a Ukrainian military man taken hostage.
In some places, all this screen absurdity looks like a bad circus or schizophrenic theater. It seems that the authors of the film added too much eccentricity to each character. However, all these stories are based on real stories and amateur videos posted by eyewitnesses on the Internet. And no matter how paradoxical some scenes may seem, they were no more than half a step away from the shocking reality.
The episodes of this film, at first glance, look like ordinary shots of a miserable life in which crime and robbery reign. However, each such scene is filled with dense symbolism. For example, the episode in which the “DPR” authorities take away a man’s jeep shows that banditry in the self-proclaimed “republics” is state policy, and racketeering and raiding are almost written into the constitution.
The most emotional scene of the film is dedicated to local residents who were left without homes, which is why they are forced to huddle in the basement. The camera follows a miserable man down a dark, damp corridor as he describes the terrible living conditions he has to endure. At some point, the man disappears into the darkness and a boy appears in his place, continuing the tour in the same tragic tone. This clever trick hints at the sad prospect of the residents of Donbass left without a home: they will have to wander through these cold dungeons for generations.
The climactic episode of “Donbass” shows the wedding ceremony of a man named Yaichnitsa with a loud woman, Angela Kuperdyagina. This scene brings to mind the popular YouTube video “Militiawoman “Kukla” marries a militiaman “BMW”.
In the film, the painting takes place under the DPR flag, next to which dangles a paper heart edged with a kitschy white ruffle. This scene not only reads a mocking equal sign between the symbols of the self-proclaimed “republic” and a vulgar trinket, but also shows that the “DPR” family itself is a union of old age with stupidity, ugliness with savagery, vulgarity with aggression.
And the plot of the film is looped by scenes with amateur artists who star in staged television news. They appear in front of cameras, posing as eyewitnesses, and recite a memorized text. The most colorful heroine of these episodes was played by Kiev actress Tamara Yatsenko. Her heroine is reminiscent of RosTV provocateur Maria Tsipko, who in various news releases posed as either a native Odessa resident, a resident of Simferopol, or the head of the election commission at a pseudo-referendum in Lugansk, or a lawyer from the “DPR.”
Comedians Georgy Deliev and Natalya Buzko, known for the projects of the Odessa troupe “Mask I”, played in two plots of the film. Their roles are dramatic, but when you see these actors on the screen, you involuntarily tune in to a comedic mood. This is exactly the mood that almost the entire film evokes: the criminal life of the occupied Donbass looks so eccentric that it seems like a cruel joke.
Director Sergei Loznitsa released three films during this year. The premiere of each of them took place at one of the three most prestigious film festivals in Europe – in Cannes, Berlin and Venice. History knows only a few directors who managed to release three films in a row that would participate in these film forums. Among them, for example, are the Pole Krzysztof Kieślowski with the series of films “Three Colors” and the Austrian Ulrich Seidl with the trilogy “Paradise”.
At the Berlinale this year, Loznitsa presented the documentary “Victory Day”. She talks about modern Russians who celebrate May 9 in the German capital. At the Cannes Film Forum, the filmmaker received the director’s prize for “Donbass,” and at the Venice Film Festival, Loznitsa showed another non-fiction film, “The Trial.” The film is assembled from a chronicle of the 1930s and tells about the trial of the Industrial Party. This case was completely orchestrated by the Soviet government. The script of the trial was written by security officers, and everything that was said in it was pure fiction. This show was played in front of cameras to intimidate society, because scared people are easier to control. As shown in Donbass, similar performances in front of cameras continue to be very popular today.
“What, exactly, has changed since that time? But nothing has changed. All the same processes, built like performances with predictable results. All the same state terror, directed directly and indirectly at different groups of the population,” said Sergei Loznitsa .
Many films that are shot in Ukraine seem to come to the screens from a parallel reality. The stories told in them have practically nothing in common with real life in our country. And “Donbass” differs from all this cinema primarily in that it shows our reality as truthfully as possible. In addition, this film by Loznitsa is the most honest fiction film about the events of recent years in eastern Ukraine.
The film “Cyborgs” by Akhtem Seitablayev and the series “Guard” by Alexey Shaparev glorified the Ukrainian military. And the dramas “Rime” by Šarūnas Bartas and “Captivity” by Anatoly Mateshko vaguely recounted the horrors of war. In contrast, “Donbass” has become a mirror of what is happening in the occupied territories. And as it is written in the epigraph to Gogol’s “The Inspector General,” “there is no point in blaming the mirror if your face is crooked.”