The Invasion

Synopsis

Sergei Loznitsa resumes his Ukrainian chronicles by documenting the country’s struggle against the Russian invasion. Shot over two years, the film captures the daily lives of civilians across Ukraine.

Ten years after the release of Maidan, Loznitsa completes his Ukrainian diptych with a unique, definitive perspective on Ukrainian resistance, focusing on the people rather than the causes of the conflict. Following an episodic approach, he creates a monumental portrait of a nation determined to defend its right to exist.

Biography and Films

Sergei Loznitsa (Baranavichy, 1964) graduated from the Kiev Polytechnic with a degree in Applied Mathematics and began work as a scientist at the Kiev Institute of Cybernetics. He later studied filmmaking at the Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography in Moscow and has since made 31 films, including Portrait (2002), Factory (2004), Blockade (2005), Artel (2006) y Austerlitz (2016), all screened at previous editions of l’Alternativa. His four fiction films—My Joy (2010), In the Fog (2012), A Gentle Creature (2017) and Donbass (2018)—were all selected at Cannes, where Donbass won Best Director in the Un Certain Regard section and where his documentary Babi Yar. Context won the Special Prize from the L’Œil d’or Jury. Loznitsa is also a regular at Venice, where he premiered The Event (2015), Austerlitz (2016), The Trial (2018) and State Funeral (2019).