San Francisco Frontiers - Ukraine's Loznitsa warns of danger of despots at Cannes

"Two Prosecutors", which premiered at the Cannes film festival on Wednesday, tells the story of an idealistic young prosecutor who takes up the case of a political prisoner languishing in one of Joseph Stalin's jails in the 1930s.

"Don't be naive, that's the message to viewers, and to myself," Loznitsa told AFP of the plot to the Cannes darling's first feature in nearly a decade.

Russia after 25 years of Vladimir Putin's rule resembles the Soviet Union, Loznitsa said, but his message also resonates at a time of backsliding in many democracies.

"Russian society today is different from Soviet society in the 20th century, but the essence is the same," said the 60-year-old director.

Asked whether he thought there was a danger of tyranny in the United States under President Donald Trump, he replied, "It could happen to any society."

"There are people who have a real talent for making society bend to their deepest desires," he said. "Stalin was extremely talented at that."

The Soviet leader, who used his purges to eliminate political enemies, is the subject of a new biopic announced in Cannes, "The Revolution According to Kamo", by the acclaimed Hungarian auteur Kornel Mundruczo.

- Expulsion -

Loznitsa has not been to Ukraine since 2021 and lives between Germany and Lithuania, but he told AFP that he hoped to return to his homeland to make a film one day.

"I would like to do a film there but I don't know to what extent it's possible," he said ahead of the premiere of "Two Prosecutors", which is competing for the Palme d'Or top prize at Cannes.

In 2022, Russian-speaking Loznitsa was ejected from the Ukraine Film Academy for criticising the country's policy of boycotting Russian films after Moscow's invasion of the same year.

Leading Ukrainian intellectuals and other filmmakers have also denounced him despite his repeated condemnations of Russia's aggression since 2014 and his work recording it in documentaries such as "Donbass" and "The Invasion".

His film "The Kiev Trial", a documentary about post-war trials in Ukraine of Nazis and their collaborators, provoked "not a single word in the Ukrainian press", he said.

"On one hand, it's surprising to me, but on the other I understand why it happens. It's a result of the war that Russia is waging against Ukraine because in a situation like that, society becomes a lot more radical and a lot more cruel," he said.

"But my situation is nothing, it's really very small compared to the suffering that many people are enduring there."

While Loznitsa hopes to return to work in a peaceful Ukraine one day, he said he has little hope that ongoing peace negotiations will produce results.

"Does Putin really want to put an end to his war? They have had the upper hand on the front lines for a long time now. I don't think he wants it to end," he said.

M.Gonzalez--SFF