“Donbass,” a new war drama by Ukrainian director Sergei Loznitsa, is a grotesque, yet honest depiction of the occupation of Ukraine’s east in 2014 and 2015.
The film premiered internationally in May at the 71st Cannes Film Festival, where Loznitsa won the Un Certain Regard Award for Best Director. It made its Ukrainian premiere at the 9th Odesa International Film Festival on July 18.
“Donbass” depicts some of the key events of the Russian occupation of the region and recaptures the chaotic atmosphere of the time. It mostly focuses on the Russia-backed separatists and the establishment of the unrecognized Luhansk and Donetsk people’s republics.
The film is an international co-production of Ukraine, Germany, France, the Netherlands and Romania. It was also partially financed by the State Film Agency of Ukraine. “Donbass” is scheduled to hit Ukrainian cinemas in October and will start its distribution in Europe this August.
Loznitsa came up with the idea for the film around four years ago while watching online videos shot in the occupied Donbas by unidentified individuals.
“What impressed me was that, on the one hand, it looked like a carnival, a bad comedy. On the other, it was a tragic story and people suffered,” Loznitsa said while talking to media after the movie’s Odesa premiere.
“Donbass” is not a typical film. It doesn’t have main characters or a single storyline. Instead, the movie combines 13 vignettes featuring problematic situations both at the front line and in other parts of the occupied territories. Taken together, they create an overall picture of what was happening in the region during the occupation.
A separatist harasses a Western journalist in Sergei Loznitsa’s “Donbass,” which offers a compelling, if at times grotesque look at life in Ukraine’s occupied territories. (Courtesy)
While the movie is tense and difficult to watch emotionally, it also is very dynamic and intriguing. Despite showing the ugliness of the events and people involved, Loznitsa manages to create aesthetic scenery using long shots and cold colors.
The cast includes both known and beginning actors, including some who fought in the east.
Carnival
“Donbass” recreates many of the key episodes of the occupation and war: the tragedy in Volnovakha, when Russian proxies fired missiles and hit a civilian bus, killing 12 passengers on Jan. 13, 2015; Russian TV channels producing propaganda stories to defame Ukraine; Russia-backed separatists harassing foreign and local journalists; and much more.
The film also focuses on the hypocrisy of the ideology common among the separatists and Russians fighting in Ukraine’s east. They show off their religiousness and supposed care for the local people, yet are also the first to rob them.
Loznitsa depicts all the characters involved in the occupation as ugly and immoral. They leave the viewer distinctly unsettled.
In this sense, one of the best vignettes is the wedding of one of the fighters. The episode was inspired by the famous wedding of Arseniy “Motorola” Pavlov, a Russian citizen and separatist commander, which took place in Donetsk on July 11, 2014.
The ceremony involves expensive cars, and people are happy and joyful. Despite wearing military uniforms and holding guns, they seem to have absolutely forgotten about the struggle taking place around them. The scene resembes a feast during the time of the plague.
Some of the episodes are so absurd that, for many foreign viewers not familiar with all of their counterparts from real life, they seem like the products of Loznitsa’s wild imagination.
The director said that one Austrian journalist asked him how he could make up such a story, which proves that the history of the occupation has not been covered well enough in the foreign media.
Director Sergei Loznitsa says he got the idea for “Donbass” four years ago while watching online videos uploaded by people from the occupied territories. He spoke about his film after its Ukrainian premiere on July 18 at the Odesa International Film Festival. (Volodymyr Petrov)
While the original movie does not have any subtitles identifying locations, dates, and events preceding the scenes, for foreign distribution, Loznitsa decided to add them.
Tragedy
Along with farce, the film depicts the people who have suffered most from Russian aggression: the locals, who lost their relatives and homes, and the Ukrainian soldiers risking their lives to protect their country.
Shelling permeates the story. One vignette shows life in a bomb shelter, where adults, children, and the elderly hide together from these attacks. Miserable and scared, they have either lost their homes or it is not safe to stay in them.
Long, dark, and very tense, the scene depicts the horrifying conditions of life during war. It stands out as a symbol of the tremendous tragedy of people forced to live in fear and suffer both physically and mentally.
“Donbass” features many more heart-breaking scenes that remain the reality for the people living in the region, those fighting for Ukraine’s independence, and even the Ukrainians watching and reading the dramatic news every day.
While the film may not be perfectly clear to foreigners, it raises awareness of the occupation of Ukraine’s east and reminds the world of the crimes committed there.
With its jarring depiction of one of the darkest times in Ukraine’s history, this film will be the must-see for many years to come.
