Donbass, a region in Eastern Ukraine, occupied by various criminal gangs fighting at once with the Ukrainian regular army, with other gangs and with Russian troops. The context in which the action takes place is a hybrid war, happening alongside an open armed conflict, mass-scale robberies and gradual degradation of the civilian population. There is fear, deception, hatred and violence everywhere. Society is collapsing, and death and deadly silence lie upon the place. Surviving Donbass equals a practical guide to inferno.
“When the war in the Donbass broke out in 2014, I followed the events very closely. It soon became obvious that one important source of information, apart from conventional ones, (professional news reports and articles, videos and photographs) was the amateur videos posted on the Internet by numerous witnesses and participants in these events. In many cases, they were more informative and substantial than professionally made war reportage. At some point I realised that I wanted to make a fictional film based on these real-life materials.” (Sergei Loznitsa)
Sergej Loznica
Born in 1964 in the city of Baranovichi, in Belarus, considered to be a Ukrainian filmmaker. Loznitsa grew up in Kiev, and graduated with a degree in mathematics. Later he worked both as a scientist in the field of cybernetics and a translator from Japanese. Graduated in filmmaking in Moscow in 1997. He has directed several documentary films since 1996 and has received numerous international awards. Loznitsa debuted as a fiction filmmaker in 2010.