The Reflets du Cinéma Festival ends this Sunday, March 27, 2022, after a week of screenings and conferences in ten cinemas in the department. Yesterday, the Cinémajestic d’Ernée paid tribute to the Ukrainian director Sergei Loznitsa and his film “Donbass”. For the occasion, the association Atmosphere 53, organizer of the festival, invited Eugénie Zvonkine, Franco-Russian university professor, specialist in Soviet and post-Soviet cinema. Sergei Loznitsa’s film evokes the war in Ukraine, a recurring theme among Ukrainian directorsexplains Eugenie Zvonkine.
“It’s cold in the back”
“It’s not totally dominant, there are also films that aren’t necessarily about war, of course, but it’s still there, it’s always present“, details Eugenie Zvonkine. She gives the example of director Valentyn Vasyanovych and his film Atlantis, made in 2019.
“This film, very strong, is quite crazy to watch today, because it begins with a card on which it is written ‘2025, end of the war with Russia’. It’s a close anticipation film and when you watch it today, this film which shows a Ukraine completely devastated by war, sends shivers down your spine. So, we feel that the war is a major concern for Ukrainian filmmakers.“For the historian, the war is at the heart of the concerns of all Ukrainians“since it lasts since 2014“.
Coming to Ernée to comment on the work of Sergei Loznitsa, Eugénie Zvonkine shows herself extremely critical of Russian President Vladimir Putin. “He’s a dictator. We are facing a dictatorial regime very close, at the gates of Europe, which we have not seen for a long time and which is currently doing things against its own population, including within the sphere cultural.”