‘Perhaps Somebody Might Listen’: Ukraine’s Sergei Loznitsa on War, Justice and Venice Documentary ‘The Kiev Trial’
variety.comChristopher Vourlias The pursuit of justice in the wake of unspeakable war crimes is at the heart of Ukrainian documentary filmmaker Sergei Loznitsa’s timely new feature, “The Kiev Trial.” Produced by Atoms & Void for the Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center, the film had its world premiere out of competition at the Venice Film Festival.
The trailer can be viewed below. Held in January 1946 in the former Soviet Union, the film’s titular trial was among the first court cases to hold Nazis and their collaborators accountable for atrocities committed during World War II — acts that would come to be known as “crimes against humanity” during the historic tribunals held in Nuremberg, Germany.
Using unique, never-before-seen archive footage, Loznitsa reconstructs key moments of the proceedings against the 15 accused, including statements from the defendants and testimonies from eyewitnesses, many of whom were survivors of the Auschwitz concentration camp and the Nazi massacre at Babi Yar, outside of Kyiv.
It is a subject that the 57-year-old filmmaker arrived at with grim prescience when he began developing “The Kiev Trial” several years ago, long before the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
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