The Event

Synopsis

In August 1991, a failed coup d’état in Moscow by a group of communist reactionaries expedited the demise of the ailing Soviet Union. As the hammer and sickle that flew over the Kremlin was replaced by the tricolor of the Russian Federation, the event was hailed around the world as marking the fall of communism and the birth of Russian democracy. A quarter of a century later Ukrainian filmmaker Sergei Loznitsa follows Maidan, his monumental documentary about the historic protests in Kiev, with the found-footage epic, a powerful montage film that revisits a crucial turning point in Russian history.

Director Biography

Sergei Loznitsa, Ukrainian film maker, born in 1964 in Baranovichi, USSR. He grew up in Kiev, and in 1987 graduated from the Kiev Polytechnic with a degree in Applied Mathematics. In 1987-1991 Sergei worked as a scientist at the Kiev Institute of Cybernetics. In 1997 Loznitsa graduated from the Russian State Institute of Cinematography (VGIK) in Moscow, where he studied feature film making. Loznitsa has been making documentary films since 1996 and is the author of 17 documentaries, as well as 2 feature films.