Ένα υπερηχογράφημα της ιστορίας

Abstract

Blockade (2005), the first in a series of “compilation films” in the filmography of Sergei Loznitsa, paves the way for his documentaries and fiction films that will follow over the years; films which reverberate with the echoes of European history, from Nazism to the collapse of the Soviet regime. What is revealed form the start is the Ukrainian director’s propensity (and stance) towards returning to the images of a forgotten past in an effort to “read” them differently, through the lens of a time that stands in opposition to that of historical progress. We are thus placed in a divided present that oscillates between memory and topicality. Whether through modern shots in Maidan (2014) and Victory Day (2017), or through an assemblage of archival images as in The Event (2015), the deep unity of Loznitsa’s work originates from a single, never-changing, ever-returning question: what is it that unites people and what tears them apart?