Maïdan 2014

Directed by Sergei Loznitsa


Session dates and venues to be announced
The Netherlands / Ukraine In Ukrainian with English subtitles
130 minutes DCP

Director, Screenplay


Sergeï Loznitsa
Maria Choustova-Baker


Serhiy Stefan Stetsenko
Sergeï Loznitsa
Mykhailo Yelchev


Sergeï Loznitsa
Danielius Kokanauskis


“Ukrainian director Sergeï Loznitsa’s Maïdan harkens back to the heroic, journalistic roots of documentary-making and yet feels ineffably modern and formally daring. It’s a tiny marvel of a movie that records a miraculous moment in his nation’s history. Comprised of footage shot over months from December 2013 to February 2014 in Kiev’s Maïdan Nezalezhnosti (aka Independence Square) which was ground zero for the revolution that eventually blew Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich out of the country, it serves as both an unvarnished record of what happened and a stylized, almost abstract meditation on crowds, movement and noise… 

Throughout Maïdan, chunks of explanatory text (in English) on a black screen periodically provide the datelines and subheadings necessary to understand the basics of what’s seen on screen… Unsurprisingly, things hot up after the government passes the Anti-Protest Laws in January 2014, and running battles break out between the protestors and the military police… 

Loznitsa and his colleagues stand steadfast in every sense… Balancing this thick-of-it immediacy, there are also some stunningly composed high long-distance shots… These moments of beauty never trivialize the bloodshed and tragedy of the events recorded here; instead they enhance the poignancy of the film, creating both a literal and metaphoric sense of distance that underscores that this was history in the making.” — Leslie Felperin, Hollywood Reporter