Sergei Loznitsa: Filmmaker in Residence

January 30–February 8, 2025

We welcome the celebrated Ukrainian director of Belarusian origin Sergei Loznitsa for a ten-day residency, during which time he will speak about his work in documentary, feature filmmaking, and short form.

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Sergei Loznitsa: The Invasion, 2024
Sergei Loznitsa: In the Fog, 2012
Sergei Loznitsa: Babi Yar. Context, 2021
Sergei Loznitsa: State Funeral, 2019

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Past
Films
Past
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Past Films

The Invasion
Sergei Loznitsa
Netherlands, France, 2024
Bay Area Premiere
Thursday, January 30 7:00 PM
Sergei Loznitsa in Person
Working with a crew of cinematographers positioned in different regions of Ukraine, Sergei Loznitsa created a film that recounts the actions of the people who have resisted oppression on a daily basis since the Russian invasion began.
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Babi Yar. Context
Sergei Loznitsa
Netherlands, Ukraine, 2021
Friday, January 31 2:30 PM
Sergei Loznitsa and Nicholas Baer in Conversation
Based entirely on archival footage (official documentation mixed with private footage shot by soldiers and civilians), Sergei Loznitsa’s film recounts the massacre of 33,771 Jews in the Babi Yar Ravine in Kyiv.
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The Natural History of Destruction
Sergei Loznitsa
Germany, 2022
Saturday, February 1 2:30 PM
Sergei Loznitsa and Deniz Göktürk in Conversation
An intense work of archival documentary filmmaking inspired by W. G. Sebold’s essay on the devastation of World War II urban bombing campaigns.
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State Funeral
Sergei Loznitsa
Netherlands, Lithuania, 2019
Saturday, February 1 6:30 PM
Sergei Loznitsa and Anne Nesbet in Conversation
Archival imagery of the news and state funeral for Joseph Stalin. “This expertly constructed rearranging of archival and propaganda footage is the rare film to merit immediate status as a canonical work” (Jay Weissberg, Variety).
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Donbass
Sergei Loznitsa
Germany, Ukraine, France, Netherlands, Romania, 2018
Sunday, February 2 3:45 PM
Sergei Loznitsa and Polina Barskova in Conversation
A journey through the Donbass unfolds as a chain of curious adventures, in which the grotesque and dramatic are as intertwined as life and death.
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Mosse Lecture: Sergei Loznitsa
Free Admission
Wednesday, February 5 7:00 PM
Sergei Loznitsa and Deniz Göktürk in Conversation
Factory showcases Sergei Loznitsa’s approach to nonfiction, working with original camerawork and mining the archives for imagery, with the annual Mosse Lecture.
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In the Fog
Sergei Loznitsa
Germany, Latvia, Russia, Netherlands, Belarus, 2012
Friday, February 7 2:30 PM
Sergei Loznitsa in Person
Two partisans plan to kill a Belarusian railway worker suspected of Nazi sympathies in Sergei Loznitsa’s dreamlike narrative film. “A masterpiece” (David Thomson).
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A Gentle Creature
Sergei Loznitsa
France, Germany, Lithuania, Netherlands, 2017
Saturday, February 8 6:00 PM
Sergei Loznitsa and Eric Naiman in Conversation
“A captivating, hallucinatory plunge into Russia’s atrophied civil society, in which a woman’s search for answers is rewarded with humiliation and abuse” (Jay Weissberg, Variety).
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Sergei Loznitsa: Filmmaker in Residence

January 30–February 8, 2025

We welcome Berlin-based filmmaker Sergei Loznitsa for a ten-day residency, during which time he will speak about his work in documentary, feature filmmaking, and short form. Since his last visit to BAMPFA in February 2017, Loznitsa has made ten feature-length films and one short. His voice as an independent filmmaker is widely respected by international film curators and critics; he is praised for his incisive work and noted for his decision to speak for positions that may challenge mainstream thought. Born in 1964 in Belarus and raised in Ukraine, Loznitsa has been making films since 1996 and is considered one of the most insightful commentators on a range of political and socioeconomic issues related to Ukraine, Russia, and the former Soviet bloc countries.

We present several films for which Loznitsa mined archival footage to examine and reanimate historical events, such as Babi Yar. Context about the genocide of 33...

We present several films for which Loznitsa mined archival footage to examine and reanimate historical events, such as Babi Yar. Context about the genocide of 33,771 Jews in Kyiv in September 1941; The Natural History of Destruction, inspired by W. G. Sebald’s essay and presenting previously unseen images from World War II bombardments; and State Funeral, culled from the historical documentation of the news of Joseph Stalin’s death. Loznitsa adopts an observational style for some of his nonfiction works. For his most recent film, The Invasion, he worked with film crews stationed around Ukraine, resulting in a multifaceted portrait of Ukrainian life since the Russian invasion in 2022. The short film Factory is exemplary of his use of original camerawork. With the feature films In the Fog, Donbass, and A Gentle Creature, Loznitsa demonstrates his skill as a writer/director, interested in form as well as stories, never shying away from the hardships individuals experience.

—Susan Oxtoby, Director of Film and Senior Film Curator

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Copresented by the Department of German, with support from the Mosse Foundation; the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures; the Institute of Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies, UC Berkeley; and the Townsend Center for the Humanities.

Thanks to Professor Deniz Göktürk, Department of German; Professor Anne Nesbet, Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures; Faculty Director Aglaya Glebova, Institute of Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies, UC Berkeley; and Executive Director Rebecca Egger, Townsend Center for the Humanities.