Synopsis
In the historic Donbass region of eastern Ukraine, despite the cruel war that has been raging since 2014 between the self-proclaimed People's Republics of Donetsk and Luhansk and the Ukrainian government, people try to survive in the rotten heart of chaos, where violence disguises itself as peace, propaganda becomes univocal truth and hatred reigns in the name of love.
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Cast
- Tamara YatsenkoPlump-faced Woman
- Iryna ZayarmiukCreature
- Hryhoriy MasliukTown Mayor
- Olesia ZhurakivskaGirl with Bucket
- Liudmyla SmorodinaWoman in Blue
- Boris KamorzinMikhalych
- Mikhail VoloshinMan in Cap
- Yevhen ChepurniakHead Physician
- Ihor KyrylchatenkoFirst Ukrainian Soldier
- Vladyslav SimankoFirst Guy on the Bus
- 100
Los Angeles Times
Filmed by the great Romanian cinematographer and frequent Loznitsa collaborator Oleg Mutu in long, patient takes that intensify each sequence’s brittle contrasts, Donbass coalesces into an unflinching dispatch from a state of embattlement both region-specific and 21st century-pervasive. - 83
Original-Cin
The Belarus-born Loznitsa, now a Ukrainian citizen, is not a follower of the “brevity is the soul of wit” school of dark humour. Each vignette is almost too long to earn that descriptor, almost as if he doesn’t want to let go of a scene until the viewer is utterly uncomfortable. But that churn builds on itself, taking us by the last act to a dark and cynical place. - 80
CineVue
The film’s displays of humour give away to harsher scenes of brutality and intense moments where rural calm is suddenly disrupted by mortar explosions and transformed landscapes dotted with corpses. - 80
The Guardian
Donbass is a flawed, but vivid achievement. - 80
Variety
Corruption and humiliation are the guiding forces of Donbass, resulting in a scathing portrait of a society where human interaction has descended to a level of barbarity more in keeping with late antiquity than the so-called contemporary civilized world. - 75
The Film Stage
In strict terms of craft, Donbass is an impressive achievement, but its heavy-handedness nevertheless feels inordinate. - 75
Movie Nation
It takes a while to settle into Loznitsa’s storytelling style and get a handle on the points he’s making. Non-natives aren’t going to pick up on every allusion, the nuances of accent or even the differences between the Russian and Ukrainian being spoken (with subtitles). - 73
TheWrap
No one is spared in Donbass, director Sergei Loznitsa’s scathing look at the (still ongoing) war in eastern Ukraine.