Without words

“When I got to the Maidan, I realized that this is the end of the authorities, that Yanukovych was no longer the president, because he lost respect, and no power could help him to stay in power”: Sergey Loznitsa gives a press conference on the occasion of the out-of-end show of the Maidan by the special series of the Cannes festival.

The film "Maidan"-a chronicle of three revolutionary months, from December 2013 to February 2014, collected (mounted the director himself) in a two-hour film.

A woman with braids, distorted with yellow-claw ribbons, poured tea; Under the Ukrainian folk song, a monotonous action acquires rhythm. The crowd shakes his heads in the beat of the famous song of Italian partisans, replacing the words contextually: “Oh, Vitya, Chao!” People enter and leave the house of the trade unions in which the headquarters is located, under the song "Ocean Yelzy". Congratulating the Euromaidan Merry Christmas, they sing a Christmas song from the stage. Farewell to the heroes occurs under the choral singing “Pliva of the Tisini”; The Maidan was generally so exquisitely musical that I wanted the soundtrack to be more likely to come to the film (VKontakte has long been special pages of “Songs of the Maidan”).

A two -hour film "Maidan" is a gallery of long shots walking one after another. Drama is created by events themselves, the camera only fixes reality. “Before starting to make a picture, I had to determine the rules by which the film would be shot,” says Loznitsa at a press conference, “and I came up with a static camera. My film is about people. I did not want the protagonists: so I just decided to keep the camera for a long time on the same plan. My landmark is Eisenstein’s “Stack”.

The Ukrainian pavilion is a tiny, not a Russian couple: journalists who did not have enough chairs are sitting on the fence of the embankment. In the Presidium, in addition to the Loznitsa, the film producer Maria Baker, producer from the Dutch film institute and presenter Alex Shpylyuk, director of the Odessa Film Festival.

“Today is the 10th day, as our friend is arrested. Our colleague is in prison. I would like to call on all filmmakers who are not indifferent to the fate of Oleg Sentsov, to join the demand of the European movie academy immediately release him ”-the Loznitsa begins the press conference. Two women, whispering behind me, insist that he is worried: the director really shakes his hands slightly, although he is obviously satisfied with the film.

“I am a Kievite. He lived in Kyiv for 27 years. And, having arrived, he was amazed at how the mentality changed. ” The film began to act spontaneously: having arrived in Kyiv in December, Loznitsa realized that "historical events should be recorded." The search for the producer would take too much time - so at first he hired by Sergey Stepan's operator Stetsenko for the money of his own film company Atom & Vood , which he and Maria Baker founded in Holland. “And only after March 23, I turned to Dutch Film Institute and, thanks to support, was able to finish post -production, which, as you know, is the most costly part. I shot Sony on the camera, Seryozha - on the Canon camera: I was very worried, but I quickly realized that you can get a good image, shooting these cameras. ”

On the eve of the premiere, I, as required by the regulation, wrote a letter with a request for an interview.

“Good evening,” answered Maria Baker, “in connection with the current political situation, Sergey was forced to decide not to give an interview to Russian media.”

“I understand your position not to interview Russian channels. But I don’t understand: why are you not making exceptions for that press, even if there are a little left, which all this time spoke objectively about the events? It’s a shame for me personally, ”says Denis, a correspondent of the Rain TV channel.

“In your information space, so much lies, especially about Ukraine that I decided not to make exceptions to anyone. So that people pay attention to this and think about what is happening. You really have five decent media. But the irony is as follows: in a sense, these media imitate the norm. Whether you work or not - your work does not make sense: the space itself, in which you also exist, deals more and more people. ”

Representatives of the deafening press - not a single in the entire Ukrainian pavilion. Sergey Loznitsa and his film is only interested in our media, imitating the norm. Larisa Malyukova from Novaya Gazeta asks him why he did not remove politicians-only at the beginning some figure of the Right Sector flickered ( an organization banned in the Russian Federation ).

“Because on the Maidan I almost did not see or heard the“ Right Sector ”: you, as always, received information from other sources. Not politicians steaming the situation on the Maidan. There was one main politician - the people. Now every next ruler of Ukraine will remember the will of the people. ”

The camera in most cases was placed on the roofs - the Maidan is often removed from above. Or directly from the crowd. The “golden eagle” shooting at unarmed people was shot very close.

They ask if Stefan risked his life. “Yes, I risked,” the Loznitsa replies. When asked whether they were allowed to shoot and how it was possible to get so close to the epicenter, the Loznitsa proudly replies: “They treated me with understanding, and sometimes it was enough to pronounce the last name, it works.” From a hundred of the watches, the material was eventually collected two hours ten minutes of the film. On May 23, the Maidan is released in France, then in the Netherlands and Poland. In June, rental in Ukraine is waiting. “And then I will post it on the Internet,” says Loznitsa, “so that as many people can look.”

I ask my question - about the finale of the picture. The film ends with coffins and flowers that people lay in memory of the dead in the square. “Why finished here,” I ask, “as if burying the Maidan?” I would like another final. ” “I shot a film about people,” repeats the Loznitsa, “the final of the film is a farewell to the heroes. Memory. It was this point that was very important to me. We have so many monuments to unknown soldiers. When we begin to erect monuments to famous soldiers, we will begin to write history. ”

The press conference ends. For some time, the Loznitsa speaks with cameras in English, holding back the promise not to talk with the Russian press (the Russians are trying to remove something because of their shoulders). And he runs away, without saying a word to Russian journalists. There are no words in the film "Maidan" either. Only once a person behind the scenes shouts that people have forgotten his purpose, that a person was created for love.

The film Jean-Luka Godard, on which everyone is in a hurry after this press conference, is called " Adieu Au Language " . Nobody needs words at this festival.