Winner of the top prize at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, the film tells the absorbing story of Lithuania’s fight for independence between 1988 and 1993. This epic documentary focuses on music professor Vytautas Landsbergis, who became the first Head of State of Lithuania after it gained independence from the Soviet Union. Along with the portrait of this charismatic man, Sergei Loznitsa offers an author’s look at the archival footage of the peaceful protests against the Soviet regime that are often called the “Singing Revolution”. This reflection on the democratic liberation movement against Soviet occupation becomes an important historical lesson about Soviet imperialism.
This event is part of Witnessing History, a comprehensive programme celebrating the multifaceted oeuvre of Ukrainian director Sergei Loznitsa, taking place from 2–10 June. Loznitsa has established himself as one of Europe’s leading filmmakers, producing numerous award-winning documentaries and feature films over a twenty-five-year career. In his work, he dares to dispassionately consider the most painful and important pages of history without compromising the current social and political agenda.
The screening will take place at Ciné Lumière.
FILMMAKER’S BIOGRAPHY
Sergei Loznitsa is a Ukrainian film director who was born in 1964 in Baranovichi (USSR). He grew up in Kyiv, where he graduated from the Kyiv Polytechnic and worked as a scientist. In 1997, he graduated from the Russian State Institute of Cinematography (VGIK) in Moscow, where he studied feature filmmaking. Sergei Loznitsa has been making films since 1996, and by now he has directed 26 award-winning documentaries and four fiction films. In 2018, Loznitsa received the prize for Best Directing of the Un Certain Regard section of Festival de Cannes for his fourth feature film, Donbass (2018). Sergei’s feature-length documentaries Maidan (2014) and Natural History of Destruction (2022) had their world premieres at Festival de Cannes, while The Event (2015), Austerlitz (2016), The Trial (2018), State Funeral (2019) and The Kiev Trial (2022) were presented at the Venice International Film Festival. Sergei Loznitsa continues to work in both documentary and fiction genres.