Soviet Union, 1937, thousands of letters from detainees falsely accused by the regime are burned in a prison cell. Against all odds, one of them reaches its destination, upon the desk of the newly appointed local prosecutor, Alexander Kornyev. Kornyev does his utmost to meet the prisoner, a victim of agents of the secret police, the NKVD. A dedicated Bolshevik of integrity, the young prosecutor suspects foul play. In the age of the great Stalinist purges, this is the plunge of a man into the corridors of a totalitarian regime that does not bear said name.
The Garden Cinema View:
Sergei Loznitsa returns to fiction after a seven year break with this dense but satisfying adaptation of a novella written by Soviet political prisoner Georgy Demidov. This is a film that unfolds in long conversations, usually in confined rooms. A stagey premise that results in a slow burn, but is ultimately an engrossing and intimate watch. Initially, the young prosecutor-protagonist speaks from a point of authority. But as he moves through the inertia of Stalinist bureaucracy, a looming sense of conspiratorial dread slowly builds. There’s a dash of Kafka’s ‘Before the Law’ here – although the film is not necessarily absurdist beyond the surreal nature of the Soviet legal system. And through meetings and dead time, Two Prosecutors gradually builds into a paranoia machine which will have you questioning even the most mundane remarks and procedures.
