'Two Prosecutors'. (SBS Productions)[Missing Credit]
The harrowing film has, Loznitsa believes, had ramifications. In February 2022 he resigned from the European Film Academy over its statement in solidarity with Ukraine, which he called “neutral, toothless and conformist in relation to Russian aggression”. A month later, he was expelled from the Ukrainian Film Academy (UFA) for opposing an EFA ban on Russian films, accused by the UFA of being a “cosmopolite” – a word, he notes, that took on negative connotations during Joseph Stalin’s “antisemitic campaign” between 1948 and 1953.
He feels Babi Yar. Context was a contributing factor to his expulsion. “There was only one country where people had a critical attitude to it, and that was Ukraine,” he tells me. As he proclaimed, when talking to The Guardian about the film at the time of the ban: “The ‘honourable academy members had a very different perception of Ukrainian history, which they claim they know better than anyone. Thus, by calling me a ‘cosmopolite’ and using my refusal to categorically ban the entire Russian culture completely as a proof of my insufficient patriotism, they descend into the Stalinist paradigm of traitors, enemies, and collective responsibility – the best present they could have possibly given to Putin.”
Director Sergei Loznitsa attends the premiere of 'Two Prosecutors' at the 63rd New York Film Festival on 4 October, 2025 in New York City. (Photo by Theo Wargo/Getty Images for FLC)Getty Images for FLC
When I speak to the lead actor of Two Prosecutors, the Ukrainian-Russian Aleksandr Kuznetsov – another who has spoken freely against the war – he confirms: “Both me and Sergei were cancelled in Ukraine and Russia.”
Loznitsa, who has lived in Berlin with his family since 2001, says it’s difficult to disagree with this fact.
“The situation remains the same. This is a whole topic that doesn’t affect just me. There are lots of people – philosophers, sociologists and public figures – that have been cancelled. It's a specific phenomenon of a certain type of society that is in a state of war,” he says.
His new film Two Prosecutors – a terrifying portrayal of Stalinist Russia that bowed in competition in Cannes last year – is, perhaps unsurprisingly, not being shown in Russia. “Let's make sure that they first stop the war and then start watching the film,” Loznitsa says. “In Ukraine, it hasn’t been shown either, and for a very simple reason: that film has been shot in Russian. And that’s now the language of the aggressor.”
Russian actor Aleksandr Kuznetsov in 'Two Prosecutors'. (Photo: SBS Productions)[Missing Credit]
In the film, Kuznetsov plays a young lawyer who travels to Moscow to speak with his superiors about an abused political prisoner. He encounters endless obfuscation and bureaucracy in what amounts to a chilling portrayal of Stalin-era oppression.
“I wanted to make it for a very long time. It just happened that I managed to do it now,” Loznitsa says, although it’s hard not to feel that the events of 2022, when he spoke out, must surely have driven him to the subject.
Loznitsa feels Two Prosecutors is a companion to his 2018 documentary The Trial, which unpacked events in Moscow 1930, when the Soviet government put a group of esteemed engineers and economists on a very public trial over claims they were plotting a coup d’état.
“Stalin ruthlessly followed his own aims, pursued his political aims,” he says. “And he used public performance in order to pursue achieve these goals, and that method exists to the present day.”
Does he see a direct correlation between Stalin’s Russia and the one Putin now runs?
“In Russia, nothing happened that would have made it possible for anything to change,” he says. “The security services came to power. They drove out the Communist Party, they got rid of the ideology, and they grabbed all the property. And now in Europe and the world, we have issues with that regime in Russia. We have to deal with it.”
It seems Loznitsa won’t stop rattling those skeletons.
Two Prosecutors will be available on Curzon Home platform for streaming on May 1. Babi Yar. Context is available to rent online.
