BEYOND ILLUSIONS

The Event

Year
2015
Country
Netherlands, Belgium
Duration
74’
Director
Sergei Loznitsa

In August 1991 a failed coup d’état attempt led by a group of hardcore communists in Moscow ended the 70-year rule of the Soviets. The USSR collapsed soon after, and the tricolor of the sovereign Russian Federation flew over the Kremlin. A quarter of a century later, Sergei Loznitsa revisits the dramatic moments of August 1991 and casts an eye on the event which was hailed worldwide as the birth of ‘Russian democracy.’ What really happened in Russia in August 1991? What was the driving force behind the crowds on the Palace Square in Leningrad? Who are these people looking at the camera: victors or victims?

Production
ATOMS & VOID, Brugsestraat, 20 2587 XS, Den Haag, Netherlands, +31703509292, [email protected]
Sales:
ATOMS & VOID, Brugsestraat, 20 2587 XS, Den Haag, Netherlands, +31703509292, [email protected] /// Ukrainian sales: Arthouse Traffic, Shchekavytska street, building 30/39, office 212, Kyiv, 04071, Ukraine, +380445037860, [email protected], www.arthousetraffic.com
Director
Sergei Loznitsa

Sergei Loznitsa was born in 1964, in Baranovichi, USSR. He graduated from the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute and the Russian State Institute of Cinematography (VGIK). Since 1996, he has directed 17 award-winning documentary films. His debut feature My Joy was selected for the main competition of the Cannes Film Festival. His second feature film In the Fog won the FIPRESCI Award in Cannes in 2012. In 2013 Sergei founded the ATOMS & VOID film company.

Selected Filmography

Selected: Blockade (2005), Artel (2006), My Joy (2010), In the Fog (2012), The Letter (2013), Maidan (2014)

Blue Hall
Kyiv Cinema
vul. Velyka Vasylkivska, 19
Skype Q&A with director
22 INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS DOCUMENTARY FILM FESTIVAL
 6 — 13 
June 2025
Bitter Lake
BEYOND ILLUSIONS
Bitter Lake
Year
2014
Country
United Kingdom
Director
Adam Curtis
Duration
137’’
BEYOND ILLUSIONS
Democrats
BEYOND ILLUSIONS
Democrats
Year
2014
Country
Denmark
Director
Camilla Nielsson
Duration
99’’
BEYOND ILLUSIONS
Grozny Blues
BEYOND ILLUSIONS
Grozny Blues
Year
2015
Country
Switzerland
Director
Nicola Bellucci
Duration
104’
BEYOND ILLUSIONS
Ukrainian Sheriffs
BEYOND ILLUSIONS
Ukrainian Sheriffs
Year
2015
Country
Ukraine, Latvia, Germany
Director
Roman Bondarchuk
Duration
85’
BEYOND ILLUSIONS