DIRECTOR/SCREENPLAY: Sergey Loznitsa
PRODUCER: Heino Deckert
PRODUCTION CO: MaJeDe, GP Cinema Company, Rija Film, Lemming Film, Belarusfilm
SCREENPLAY: Sergey Loznitsa. Based on the novel by Vasil Bykov
​PHOTOGRAPHY: Oleg Mutu
EDITOR: Danielius Kokananauskis
WITH: Vladimir Svirski (Sushenya), Vlad Abashin (Burov), Sergei Kolesov (Voitek), Vlad Ivanov (Grossmeier)


FESTIVALS: Cannes 2012

REVIEW

“Set in Belarus in 1942, the film begins with a lengthy travelling shot (the first of only 70 or so shots in the movie), which ends with the Nazis hanging Belarussian resistance fighters. It then proceeds to chronicle what happens after two partisans arrive at the house of a comrade widely believed (since he alone was freed by the Nazis after a train was sabotaged) to have betrayed the executed men. He protests his innocence, but they are no more persuaded by his claims than his wife, and they take him through the forest, hoping to avoid discovery by the German forces patrolling the district. What follows not only shows the respective destinies of the three men but sketches, in flashback, their characters and their different responses to the question of how best to deal with the occupying German forces.

​Loznitsa adopts a slow, stately pace, allowing a number of cruel ironies to emerge from the stark, simple storyline with steadily accumulating dramatic force… In the Fog is a war movie that foregrounds the emotions of individuals over the spectacle of battle, and uses metaphor and a calm mood of ethical enquiry rather than simplistic polemics arguing for or against military engagement. Loznitsa knows that war exists and won’t go away; he tries to show what it might do to our souls. And, in this writer’s opinion, he succeeds.”

— Geoff Andrew, Time Out

FILM SOCIETY SCREENINGS

Nelson 
Tuesday, 19 April, 6.00pm 

Dunedin   
Wednesday, 27 July, 7.30pm

WORLD CINEMA selection >>