DIE SANFTE

A woman lives alone on the edge of a small Russian town. Her husband is in prison, and she regularly sends him parcels. When one of them comes back without explanation, she sets out to find out why – and finds herself on an odyssey through offices, waiting rooms and cheap lodgings, through a system of corruption, abuse of power and indifference that gives her no answer at any point. In “Die Sanfte” (2017), a European co-production set in Russia, Sergey Loznitsa tells of a woman demanding justice from an inhuman apparatus.

The film is loosely based on Dostoevsky’s story of the same name from 1876 and premiered in the competition at Cannes in May 2017. Over almost two and a half hours, Loznitsa unfolds a bleak reckoning with “Mother Russia”; many critics read the film as a parable of the relationship between Ukraine and Russia. In 2017, “Die Sanfte” was shown at Around the World in 14 Films in Berlin.

Shown at the 2017 edition of Around the World in 14 Films.

All films 2017 · Film Archive