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Blockade

original title: Blokada

2005, 35 mm, b/w, 52 min.

chronicle cruelty Leningrad blockade USSR

CATEGORY : Drama
DOCUMENTARY CATEGORY : History / Archive
COUNTRY: Russia
PRODUCTION : BUDGET : 30 000 euro

FESTIVALS & AWARDS

CREW

Director : Screenplay : Sergey Loznitsa
Cinematographer : N. Blazhkov, A. Bogorov, J. Blumberg, A. Bistrov, V. Valdaizev, N. Golod, B. Dementiev, N. Dolgov, S. Ivanov, O. Ivanov, L. Isaksohn, A. Klimov, A. Ksenovontov, R. Karmen, L. Levitin, E. Leibovich, V. Maksimovich, S. Maslenikov, L. Medvedev, A. Nasarov, P. Pallei, F. Pechul, A. Pogoreliy, G. Simonov, B. Sinizin, V. Sinizin, J. Slavin, B. Sorokin, V. Stradin, K. Stankevich,V. Sumkin, G. Troffimov, E. Schapiro, B. Scher, G. Schuljatin, E. Uchitel, S. Fomin
Producers : Vyacheslav Telnov
Poster

COMMENTS

Awards:
Jury Award International Film Festival “Stalker” in Moscow, 2005
Critics Prix International Film Festival “Stalker” in Moscow, 2005
“White Elephant” National film critics prix for best documentary film, Russia, 2005
Jury Award International Film Festival “Message to man” St.Petersburg, 2006
Grand Prix for Best Documentary Film IFF “Okno v Evropu”, Vyborg, Russia, 2006
Best Documentary Film Open Documentary Film Festival “Russia”, Ekaterinburg, 2006

This is a documentary about the Leningrad blockade that took place in 1941 – 1944, during the Second World War. The film does not have words or music, only images, sounds of the dying city and intolerable suffering of the people… In just a few years, a colossal volume of work has been done. For the first time, all the video material shot in 1941 – 1944 about Leningrad was assembled, processed and restored, almost all the cameramen were named, the original sound of this period was restored and recorded.

SYNOPSIS

The city of Leningrad and the blockade during the Second World War. No words. No music. Only sounds and black and white images of a dying city.

PRESS

“This footage, shown at the end of the film, was shot in 1946 and comes from a documentary called “The People’s Verdict,” Loznitsa said. It shows German prisoners of war, a detail that is secondary in the director’s view. “Only 60 years ago, we gathered on the street and watched other people being hanged,” he commented. “On the one hand, you can understand people, since they lived through something that — I don’t know — reconciled them to such a fact”, – Anna Malpas “Moscow time”

“Das Vergangene zur Gegenwart machen – bei Loznitsa erhält der Zeitenwechsel immer auch die Dimension der Metapher. Die Blockade ist auch noch heute auszumachen, die Geschichte kommt nicht voran in Russland, sondern dreht sich, wie die Kamera beim weitläufigen 360-Grad-Schwenk, im Kreis”, – Dunja Bialas

“Told without voiceover, explanatory subtitles or any other contextualizing material, Russian docu “Blockade” looks unlikely to show up on the History Channel as it stands now. Nevertheless, this absorbing account of the 900-day siege of Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) during WWII, told entirely through re-edited archive footage with freshly made sound, reps poignant viewing as it focuses on the daily lives of the city’s inhabitants. Pic by experienced helmer Sergei Loznitsa (“Landscape”) should soon besiege fests and upmarket cablers. Culled from newsreel material, pic’s visuals are grouped thematically to show different aspects of the Leningrad Blockade. Shots of burning and later devastated buildings are backed by a soundtrack of sirens and raging flames. Sounds of soft weeping are matched to imagery of mass graves, which still have power to shock. Later on, dead, shrouded bodies are seen littering the streets, but most of the pedestrians, by this point so inured to the sight, simply walk past. Match between sound and image is concise but not too literal, and editing builds the pace well toward its climax, when the city is finally liberated and the war ends”, – Leslie Felperin “Variety”

“In de Moskouse archieven vond Sergei Loznitska aangrijpende beelden van de belegering van Leningrad tijdens de Tweede Wereldoorlog. De regisseur speelt een spel met onze beleving van tijd en geschiedenis. De stille fragmenten ondersteunt hij namelijk met een nieuwe geluidsband van Vladimir Golovnitsky, die eerder zijn sporen verdiende in een samenwerking met de grote regisseur Sharunas Bartas. Wat we zien, zijn niet onze collectieve herinneringen, maar beelden die uit hun eigen as verrijzen in onze werkelijkheid. Het materiaal toont het dagelijkse leven in tijden van onzekerheid, politiek tumult en ontbering. De belegering kostte het leven aan ongeveer een derde van de inwoners. “Blockade” geldt dan ook als een ingetogen eerbetoon aan de slachtoffers van de ‘heldenstad’, zoals Leningrad vroeger bitter genoemd werd. De autoriteit van deze gevonden archiefbeelden overheerst en moet vandaag niets aan effect inboeten. Via hedendaagse bewerkingen van montage en soundmix benadrukt de cineast dat de tijd ons verandert, maar ons niet van de grimmige inhoud van de beelden verwijdert”, – i.h.k.v. Internationaal Filmfestival Gent