Summoned with a blood-written note smuggled out of a prison block, an idealistic state lawyer (Alexander Kuznetsov) pushes past the prison’s leery authorities to interview an elderly, broken-down Bolshevik (Aleksandr Filippenko). The young attorney, determined to expose the miscarriages of justice that landed the man in confinement, finds the eye of the state turned on him instead, as an ever-tightening net encircles his investigation. Set at the height of the great purge and drenched in the paranoia of Stalin’s police state, filmmaker Sergei Loznitsa’s latest triumph is a chilling, Kafkaesque thriller about the impunity of power and matter-of-fact horrors of fascism.
“One of his most accessible films to date, with relevance to every country wrestling with authoritarian political parties right now.” – Manohla Dargis, The New York Times
“There may not be a more urgent filmmaking presence in the churn today than Sergei Loznitsa.” – Michael Atkinson, The Village Voice
“A haunting, mesmerising, pessimistic piece of work.” – Phil de Semlyen, Time Out
