Sergei Loznitsa (Maidan, SFIFF 2015) once again brings Eastern European history to vivid life with the inspired deployment of archival resources. In the summer of 1991, hardline members of the Communist Party attempted to seize power from Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin, a short-lived power play that hastened the Soviet Union’s collapse. By focusing on the confusion and euphoria of the crowds rather than on the leaders, Loznitsa evokes pertinent questions about the past and present of Russian politics.