‘The Invasion’ Review: Sergei Loznitsa’s Raw but Restrained Reflection on Life During Wartime
variety.comGuy Lodge Film Critic The last time Ukrainian director Sergei Loznitsa made a documentary about contemporary events in his homeland was back in 2014: “Maidan,” a rigorously observational chronicle of the Euromaidan uprising in Kyiv, was both immediate and calmly detached.
Eschewing overt narrative shaping or rhetoric for clear-eyed witnessing, it was thoroughly of-the-moment filmmaking that nonetheless felt built to last as a historical document.
A comparable approach yields similar rewards in “The Invasion,” Loznitsa’s keenly awaited and patiently assembled response to Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
A collection of stoic, straightforwardly shot and cumulatively wrenching vignettes from a country in crisis, doing its best to keep the lights on and hope alive, it acts as an effective sister work to “Maidan” — albeit one that, a decade ago, nobody wished would be made.
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