Sergei Loznitsa (Maidan, In the Fog), the preeminent chronicler of Ukraine’s recent past, offers up a rich and darkly comic series of tales. His Dickensian portraits of life unfold in the Donbass region, which came under Russian control in 2014. With each tale Loznitsa builds up a portrait of corruption in the military, a society fractured by political divisions and a people caught between self-interest and the greater good. Rather than judge his characters’ actions, Loznitsa presents a kaleidoscope of misdeeds and crimes both petty and vicious, and show how easily a society can slide into chaos.
