Visit our website:
http://www.france24.com
Like us on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/FRANCE24.English
Follow us on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/France24_en
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00In the trenches, with a Ukrainian platoon, fighting to win back territory in eastern
00:12Ukraine in 2,000 meters to Andrivka.
00:22Our war also takes us to the front line, the final part of the French philosopher Bernard
00:27Henri Lévy's Ukrainian Quartet series, and French documentary Zelenskyy, an archival
00:40portrait tracing the destiny of the actor who would become president.
00:46These three documentaries were screened on the opening day of the Cannes Film Festival,
00:50a reminder that the war has been raging for more than three years, a conflict that the
00:54exiled Ukrainian director Sergei Loznitsa has been documenting through his work.
01:01In The Prosecutor, an idealistic young lawyer takes up the case of a political prisoner,
01:14languishing in one of Joseph Stalin's jails in 1930s Russia.
01:18For Sergei Loznitsa, this story may be fictional and historical, but it has many contemporary
01:23parallels.
01:24I've been working on this historical era for years, and I believe that everything that's
01:30happening now is a direct consequence of this time.
01:33For example, in January, three lawyers who defended Alexei Navalny were imprisoned for their legal
01:41work.
01:44A stark warning about despots and the danger of failing to spot them until it is too late.
01:50I think it's not the film only about Russia or Eastern Europe.
01:56I think it's a movie about dictatorship everywhere, anywhere in the world, at any time.
02:03The prosecutor is in this year's official selection.
02:06Loznitsa is a Cannes darling.
02:09He most recently came to the Kwaset with a documentary, The Invasion, the second part
02:13of his Ukrainian diptych.
02:16Despite the red carpet being rolled out for Ukrainian cinema, he believes it is not enough.
02:21As long as the war is ongoing, the cultural world needs to do more to call for peace,
02:27for this madness to come to an end.
02:30The Cannes Film Festival has taken steps since the full-scale Russian invasion in February
02:352022.
02:36That year, the festival banned Russian films, a decision the festival's director Thierry
02:41Freymaud still stands by.
02:43When there is real and lasting peace and Russia ceases to be the aggressor of Ukraine, then
02:49we will change our policy on this matter.
02:54Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also made a special appearance by video link at the
02:59opening ceremony in 2022.
03:02He was met by a standing ovation and rapturous applause.
03:04.
03:05.
03:06.
03:07.
03:08.
03:09.
03:10.