Cinema Releases - In the Fog
In 1942, Belarus is in the hands of Nazis and the local militia. Sushenya is taken from his house in the middle of the night by Burov and his sidekick Voitik, two partisan fighters hiding out in the hills and forest. Sushenya is the only one of four captured rail workers who has been allowed to live by the occupying Germans after seemingly sabotaging the rail tracks. With the village and even his wife turned against him as a collaborator, Sushenya accepts what must happen next until the Germans suddenly appear and he is - perhaps - given a second chance, leaving space for doubt both on his betrayal and on the legitimacy of punishment by death. The three – and later two – men walk in the wood, exhausted, fleeing death from the Nazis while discussing and living the moral dilemmas of treason, heroism, guilt and revenge.
Shot in somptuous long takes and vibrant colour, In the Fog ultimately questions the corruption of man’s very humanity in the context of war.
Official Selection, Cannes Film Festival
FIPRESCI Award, Cannes 2012
Golden Apricot, Yerevan Film Festival
Best Film, Odessa International Film Festival
Grand Prix, Andrei Tarkovsky International Film Festival
Born in 1964 in Belarus, Sergei Loznitsa grew up in Kiev where he studied applied mathematics and later worked as a researcher on artificial intelligence.
He then decided to study directing at the Moscow Institute of Cinematography (VGIK), graduating in 1997. He has been making award-winning documentaries since 1996, and in 2010 he completed his first feature film My Joy, premiered in the main competition of the Cannes Film Festival, to great critical acclaim. In The Fog is his second feature film. It received its international premiere at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival and was widely praised by the critics and public alike.
Feature-Length Fiction Films
2012 In the Fog
2010 My Joy
Feature-Length Documentaries
2008 Revue
2008 Northern Light
2005 Blockade
2003 Landscape
2001 Settlement
Documentary Shorts
2012 O Milagre de Santo Antonio
2006 Artel
2004 Factory
2002 Portrait
2000 The Train Stop
1998 Life, Autumn
1996 Today We Are Going to Build a House
See links to the films at: www.loznitsa.com/en/films.html
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CAST |
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Sushenya |
Vladimir Svirski |
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Burov |
Vlad Abashin |
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Voitik |
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Sergei Kolesov |
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Grisha |
Nikita Peremotovs |
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Anelya |
Julia Peresild |
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Koroban |
Kirill Petrov |
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Mishuk |
Dmitrijs Kolosovs |
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Topchievsky |
Stepans Bogdanovs |
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Yaroshevich |
Dmitry Bykovskiy |
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Grossmeier |
Vlad Ivanov |
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Mirokha |
Igor Khripunov |
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Burov's mother |
Nadezhda Markina |
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First policeman |
Boris Kamorzin |
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Second policeman |
Mikhail Evlanov |
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Third policeman |
Sergei Russkin |
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Fourth policeman |
Timofey Tribuntsev |
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CREW |
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Written and directed by |
Sergei Loznitsa |
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Based on a novel by |
Vasil Bykov |
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Cinematographer |
Oleg Mutu |
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Editor |
Danielius Kokanauskis |
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Art Director |
Juris Zukovskis |
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Costume Designer |
Dorota Roqueplo |
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Line Producer |
Martin Schlüter |
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Producer |
Heino Deckert |
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Co-Producers |
Galina Sementseva, Valkentina Mikhaleva, |
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Vilnis Kalnaellis, Leontine Petit, |
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Joost de Vries, Oleg Silvanovich |
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A Production of ma.ja.de fiction, in coproduction with: GP Cinema Company, Rija Films, Lemming Film, Belarusfilm, ZDF/ARTE |
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2012, colour, 35mm, 1:2,35, Dolby SR, 128 ‘ Cert 12A |
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'...haunting, haunted, beautifully shot...'
Manohla Dargis, The New York Times
Read the full review
★★★★★
This sombre, minimalist study of the spiritual vacuum of war – in which few shots are actually fired – is a masterly work of true depth...
You may not have heard of Sergei Loznitsa, but he's one hell of a film-maker…
would have made just as worthy a Palme d'Or as Michael Haneke's Amour in Cannes last year.
It powerfully conveys a sense of war as a constant force determining the turns of misfortune for innocent and compromised alike. In war, it suggests, you can never go home again…
This is a film of real depth and substance, its anecdotal perfection echoing not only the Russian war stories of Isaac Babel, but also such masters as Maupassant and Graham Greene…. a compelling, nerve-racking narrative – and one of the year's unmissables.
Jonathan Romney THE INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY
★★★★★
Melancholic masterpiece, with a touch of Sergio Leone…
The best thing I have seen so far this year…. This is a masterpiece of serious cinema; long, slow and grave as the grave. You won’t believe me but I came out beaming.
Robbie Collin THE DAILY TELEGRAPH
FILM OF THE WEEK
“Sergei Loznitsa’s stark parable about Soviet collaboration with the Nazis has echoes of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky…One of the best Russian films to open in Britain over the past decade.”
Philip French THE OBSERVER
★★★★
Sergei Loznitsa's chilling drama explores the agonies of war and puts European history on trial.
“This is chilling and mysterious historical parable from film-maker Sergei Loznitsa… In The Fog is a haunting depiction of the hidden tragedies of war.”
Peter Bradshaw THE GUARDIAN
★★★★ “In its meditative way, this is moving and meticulously crafted film-making”Geoffrey Macnab THE INDEPENDENT
★★★★“The complex line between guilt and innocence, the joy of existence and the sweet relief of death are earnestly explored in IN THE FOG…a film as challenging as it is rewarding.”
Allan Hunter THE DAILY EXPRESSFILM OF THE MONTH
"Lets us grasp the poisoned reality of life under occupation...A solemn moral epic...
"In its thorough meditation on man's moral place, and its beautiful depiction of one version of life's trail, lies this film's joy." Hannah McGill, SIGHT & SOUND
★★★★“This extraordinary film”
Derek Malcolm THE EVENING STANDARD
★★★★ "A masterpiece in bleak and tense atmosphere…haunting…classy”Mark Adams THE SUNDAY MIRROR
PICK OF THE WEEK
“Powerful, slow-burning parable…a meaty moral conundrum.
This substantial, atmospheric wartime thriller”
GUARDIAN GUIDE
"A historical drama...that concerns characters with complex moral dilemas and explores the indistinct line between fate and free will." Anna Formicheva, SIGHT & SOUND in interview with director Sergei Loznitsa
'Shot by Oleg Mutu with an exquisite eye for atmosphere…there’s a strong feeling of authenticity to this defined world that’s rare in World War II film.
'Magnificently evocative…I loved every one of its 73 shots.'
Nick James, SIGHT & SOUND
'A delicately complex work of shifting perspectives....'Among the handful of truly eloquent and moving films here'
“Loznitsa’s war film is a superbly constructed anecdote, at once simple and troublingly complex. One of the films I most want to see again in 2013.”
Jonathan Romney, SIGHT & SOUND (Cannes Film Festival 2012 blog)
★★★★“In 2010 Sergei Loznitsa attracted a lot of attention with his impressive first feature, MY JOY...Loznitsa looks set to garner even more praise...Loznitsa knows that war exists and won’t go away; rather than indulging in patriotic or pacifist platitudes, he tries to show what it might do to our souls. And in this writer's opinion, he succeeds.”
Geoff Andrew TIME OUT
★★★★
“The Ukrainian director and former documentary-maker Sergei Loznitsa scored a succes d’estime with his first fiction feature MY JOY. Now he has returned with a mysterious, compelling story from the Nazi-occupied Soviet Union in 1942...
‘In the Fog is an intense, slow-burning and haunting drama.’
Peter Bradshaw, THE GUARDIAN
Read the full review
“IN THE FOG paints in simple terms a complex picture of survival, compromise, betrayal and integrity. The film is impeccably acted and its clarity and economy are positively Tolstoyan”.
“A Russian drama about truth, honour and betrayal, and one of the very best war movies of recent years.”
Jonathan Romney, THE INDEPENDENT / THE INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY
More links and round-ups at Fandor.com
‘In the Fog is a splendour, struck by beauty and intelligence.’
Jacques Mandelbaum, LE MONDE
“A beautifully rigorous piece which will delight cineastes.. It’s Loznitsa’s intellectual approach and his technical team’s interpretation that mark IN THE FOG... This very Russian tragedy is a jewel which will surely only burnish with time.”
Fionnula Halligan SCREEN INTERNATIONAL
Visit Sergei Loznitsa's website
Download pressbook
Download zip file of 5 photos
Watch the press conference of In the Fog during the Cannes Film Festival, just after its world premiere (May 2012)