Ukrainian director Sergei Loznitsa‘s drama film Two Prosecutors, which Janus Films released in cinemas in the U.S. earlier this year, will get its streaming premiere on the Criterion Channel on June 23.
The adaptation of Georgy Demidov’s eponymous novel, set in the Soviet Union in 1937 during Stalin’s Great Purge, tells the story of a young local prosecutor and dedicated communist who starts to question his undying faith in the regime.
The film, starring Aleksandr Kuznetsov, Alexander Filippenko, Anatoli Beliy, Andris Keišs and Vytautas Kaniušonis, debuted at Cannes, then played in the 59th edition of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival before screening at the 31st Sarajevo Film Festival.
On the Criterion Channel, known for showcasing classics and discoveries from around the world, Two Prosecutors will be accompanied by The Trial, a 2018 documentary that Loznitsa assembled from footage of a 1930 Stalinist show trial.
THR can now also exclusively premiere a clip from a longer “Meet the Filmmaker” interview that the Criterion Channel produced with Loznitsa on the occasion of its streaming deal for Two Prosecutors. The full interview will premiere on the channel alongside the film.
In the exclusive segment below, Loznitsa explains how he first reached out to Romanian cinematographer Oleg Mutu, whose work he had admired in the likes of Cristian Mungiu’s first Cannes Palme d’Or-winning film 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days. Loznitsa and Mutu, who was born in what was back in the day the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic of the Soviet Union, have worked together on several films, and the director explains why and how the director of photography’s sensitivities fit his first film so well.
Calling Mutu “a great artist,” Loznitsa also explains how the creative duo discussed the visual rules for Two Prosecutors. Check out the exclusive Loznitsa “Meet the Filmmaker” clip right here.
